The Longest Night of My Life
by someblessedmonster
Summary: He had to die to stay alive, but now to stop a conspiracy Jack Bauer must unite with the Slayer before time runs out for good. One night in Hell changes everything. [BTVS Season 6, 24 between Seasons 4 & 5] COMPLETE, PLEASE R
1. 7:00 PM TO 8:00 PM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

_  
Once, I was a hero to my country.  
Until the day my country wanted me dead. _

Six months ago, I died… and since then I have been on the run under several aliases. Now I'm James Dawson. I'm a threat to national security, I'm a threat to people who try to help me… but most importantly, I'm a threat to those who try to stop me.

My name was Jack Bauer.  
I'm now a man without a past,  
And this is the longest night of my life.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 7:00 P.M. AND 8:00 P.M.**

**EVENTS OCCUR IN REAL TIME.**

**Sunnydale, California **

7:00:00 P.M. PST

James Dawson gazed at himself in confusion. He stood in a public bathroom that was empty save for himself and was leaned over a porcelain sink. His blue and green eyes which had seen so much felt as if they were looking at a new man. He stared intently into the bathroom mirror at his tanned face and his blonde hair which he had just had neatly shaved the morning before.

It wasn't his body. The man in the mirror was not James Dawson. It was something that always came to him when he caught his own reflection whether it be this nightly, mental confessional in front of the mirror that he had grown accustomed to or a small blink of the eye in passing.

He looked tired. He should have slept before he came to his first day of work. He never timed it right.

But chances are he'd be lucky this time. He'd go through the motions of this stranger's body that he was living inside of and do his small job quietly and alone, unnoticed by all until he could move on to another town and another name.

His multi-colored eyes moved down to his neck as he fixed the orange collar. They settled on the hideous orange-and-white-striped shirt that he had to wear. In all of his life, he probably had never worn something so stupid. Except maybe that Christmas sweater that Teri's mother made which he had to pretend to like.

A small smile formed on his face, but quickly vanished. He looked at his face in the mirror again. _That's not James Dawson_, he said to himself. _James Dawson is who I have to be._

Slowly, he filled his lungs with a deep breath and let out the air. It was definitely not the hardest thing he'd ever done. He straightened up his ugly orange-striped shirt and brushed off his bright orange pants. He turned towards the orange door and pushed it open.

Outside of the bathroom, there was a calm, detached environment in the restaurant around him. He gazed out at the two or three people sitting at the tables and booths that paid his entrance no attention. It's what he wanted.

He looked over at the counter to see a dark haired girl behind the register with a dead look on her face as she gazed out into the abyss before her. Her hair was back in a pony tail underneath a silly, bright orange hat with a yellow cow's head on top of it which had a twisted black-lipped grin. It creeped him out.

_Please, God, don't make me have to wear one of those._

Just then, a kid half his age wearing a white, button-up shirt and bright orange tie walked out from behind the counter to face James. "Ah, there you are," he began. James looked him down. He was less than his height with thick blonde hair and a little blue tag which read: BRICK SPAIN, MANAGER.

"You must be James Dawson," Brick said, shaking his hand with a wide-mouthed grin. "My name is Mr. Spain," he explained as if talking to a child. James stared at him in stunned silence as he watched him. "I want you to know, Jim – can I call you Jim? I won't just be your manager while you're working here… I'll be your friend."

He suddenly was bombarded with a flashback of his entire former life up until that point. James tried to force a smile, but couldn't really find it in himself. "Thank you," he finally spat out.

"I'm sure you're just enthralled to be working here," Brick continued with a wide smile, nodding his head while still shaking James' hand.

"Um… absolutely…"

"That's great. Well, if you don't mind, we'll get started on the grand tour. Ooh!" he said, throwing up a finger. "That reminds me, Jim." He started digging in his pocket. "This belongs to you now." He pulled out a blue, plastic nametag and placed it in James' outstretched hand. He looked down at it and felt that same confusion as he studied the letters in the tag:

JAMES DAWSON  
DOUBLEMEAT PALACE

**7:07:13 P.M. PST**

The orange hat sat in James' hands as he stared down at it with a frown. The yellow cow stared up at him with its twisted grin. It looked a little demonic. Blue pieces of cloth protruded out of the back of the hat.

"So I have to wear the hat?" James said, with a disappointed tone.

"You don't sound so excited, Jim," Brick answered, giving him a pat on his back. "I mean, isn't he the cutest?" The cow's huge eyes were glaring at Jack with a smile wider than Brick's which proved otherwise.

"Uh… sure."

"I understand what it is," Brick declared. "You're just nervous about working here. I was too, you know. But I've been here for two weeks and everyone's really nice."

"Two weeks?" James repeated.

Brick's smile faded a bit. "Yeah… it's quite sad. The last manager… well, he, uh, passed away." James gazed at him as he processed the information.

"What happened?" he asked.

Brick began to turn away, hesitating before he answered, "That reminds me… a word from the wise – the sun just went down a few minutes ago and when it gets dark, business slows down a little. Don't… uh… don't go outside unless you need to. There's something of a… uh… a gang problem here."

"Gang problem?" he repeated. He could feel an instinct kicking in.

"But never mind you that," Brick smiled. "We'll all be fine. Now all we need to do is introduce you to some of the workings here at Doublemeat."

They walked out of Brick's office into the kitchen of the restaurant where several more bored teenagers wandered around. A blonde girl in her early twenties quickly walked by, having the lucky privilege of removing her hat.

"Uh, Buffy?" Brick quickly stopped her. She paused in her tracks with a disappointed face, then turned around to face her manager, forcing a smile herself.

"Yes, Mr. Spain?"

"Could you do me a teeny, tiny little favor?"

"Well, actually," she apologetically began, "I was just about to—"

"This is James Dawson," Brick said, revealing James to her view. "He's starting tonight and he'll be here tomorrow. I was hoping he could have a nice friend here to… show him the ropes." He added the last phrase with a smile as he put up his fists in boxing fashion. Both James and Buffy stared at him incredulously.

"I would love to," Buffy tried to explain, "but you see, it's getting late and—"

"Late?" Brick repeated with a mighty and pleasant voice. "Late? The night is young! Go! Teach. And if you see Sophie, tell her I need her to fix the cooling system in the meat cellar. It turns everything into a block of ice in a few minutes."

He patted her on the back and gave her a small push towards James, leaving the two of them as he returned to his office. She watched him go with a peeved expression which turned into an uncertain half-smile as she turned to him.

"Sorry," he began.

"It's okay," she smiled warmly. "Not like I have a life anyway."

**7:18:54 P.M. PST**

Spike sat at the bar at Willy's as he swallowed a shot of whiskey. He slammed the glass down on the bar as people chatted around him. It was busy for a Tuesday night, not that those were ever boring. Groups of demons and vampires were all around him. The difference was that no one seemed to notice him or give him any lecture about his helping the Slayer.

Those days were long over.

She definitely didn't notice him anymore. It wasn't fair. She loved him, he knew it. He felt it every time they were together. But then when it was over she'd kick him out like he was a rat in the house. What made him the angriest was when she pranced off to her "normal" life with her friends and her job. Sooner or later she'd come back.

But she wasn't coming back. Not this time. She'd told him herself a week or two ago when her ex-boyfriend rode into town with his damn military brigade. He'd caught the two of them sleeping together and the next thing anyone knew, the Slayer was denying and explaining everything – talking faster than she could get her clothes back on. Of course, she left him after that with a bruised face and a destroyed home.

But that was all over. That was in the past. It was a new night and he was going to show her who William the Bloody really was.

Spike's attention was pulled away from his empty glass. His senses picked up several sentences from across the room. He turned, looking over at a gang of vampires sitting at a booth in the corner.

"Tonight's the night, boys. We're gonna give the Slayer hell."

**7:25:34 P.M. PST**

"So are you new in town?" Buffy asked as she and James stood over the grill. He looked over at her with a calm expression, but inside was slightly stunned.

"Yeah, kinda," he answered.

"No, I haven't been stalking you," she said with a smile. "Sunnydale's not exactly a bustling city. I just never recognized you." He returned a small, almost nervous smirk as he looked away in relaxation. Buffy turned on the grill to it's normal temperature and casually asked, "Unless I have a reason to be stalking you…"

"Oh, trust me," James answered quickly. "I'm not really an exciting guy." She looked up at him, smiling a little wider and he gazed at her. She was a pretty young woman with sparkling green eyes. However, he noted that she looked extremely tired herself. It wasn't an expression that he figured he'd see on a woman as young as she.

"Buffy, Jim," Brick's voice declared from across the kitchen. "Where are your hats?" They both held theirs up.

"Right here," Buffy answered, pushing enthusiasm.

"Well, why aren't they on your heads?" he asked.

Buffy and James gave each other a look and placed the hideous hats on their heads. Brick nodded with approval and walked away, leaving them again. The hats immediately came off. James looked at the blue pieces of cloth hanging out of the back.

"What the hell are those?"

"I think they're tail feathers."

"Well is it a cow or a chicken?"

"Maybe it's one of those weird multi-meat things. Like a Turducken." James sighed as he looked around at the kitchen. "Well, for a non-exciting guy as yourself," Buffy shrugged with a deflated tone, "it's the perfect job for getting away. But trust me – you'll be longing for some quality family time soon enough." She looked over to see him look away suddenly, a stricken expression on his face that he was trying very hard to hide.

"Oh," she said, her eyes widening a bit at her error. "I mean, not that… I…" With a sigh, she let the words fall away in defeat. Rolling her eyes, she said to herself, "Why do I always do that?"

"It's fine," James answered. Buffy glanced up at him and noted the tiny smile he gave. It was a forced one: an art she knew well by now. He reached out and picked up a spatula off of the grill. Buffy gazed down to see a nasty scar on his forearm. Her eyes were focused on the unusually shaped scar – an old one, but a bad one nevertheless.

"So… what did you say you did before this?" Buffy asked with a puzzled expression.

"I… worked at a box company," James answered.

"Oh." Buffy looked up at him, eyeing him with growing suspicion. "That's it?"

James turned to her, gazing at her nervously. "Yeah." They stared at each other for a few seconds of uncomfortably awkwardness until Buffy finally replied with an anxious tone.

"Neat."

"Buffy!" Brick called from the other side of the kitchen. "Can you help Sophie with the meat cellar? And where's your hat?"

"Sure," Buffy answered as she left James at the grill and followed the manager. Before she disappeared into the meat cellar, she looked back to see James staring down at the grill with a where-did-my-life-go? expression. She couldn't help but sense that there was something wrong with his story – his _something_ – that she couldn't put her hand on.

**7:32:23 P.M. PST**

"When do we leave, Mickey?" a vampire said to another as he and four others sat in a booth inside Willy's Bar.

"Shut your trap," Mickey, the rough-neck young vamp snapped at his thuggish gang. "We'll go in a few."

"Where to, boys?" a Cockney accent declared from above. The vamps looked over to see Spike standing at their table with a belligerent smile on his twisted face. The vamps stared at him with a sense of loathing and awe. He stood tall in black clothes with platinum blonde hair that was firmly gelled back. He wore a long, black, leather duster jacket that supposedly he stole of the body of a Slayer he killed himself. But that was a long time ago. Even if the story was real, that Spike is dead.

"Spike!" one of the vampires spat.

"It's the Slayer's lapdog!" another shouted. The first, shortest vampire stood up and quickly swung a punch at him. Spike coolly caught his fist and crushed every bone in the grip of his fingers without giving a glance at his screaming attacker. The vamp was on his knees in seconds, causing the others to jump with surprise.

"That's not very polite, mate," Spike declared as he glared at the stunned vampires.

"How'd you do that?" Mickey asked, fear entering his voice. "I thought you couldn't hurt—"

"Humans," Spike answered with a twisted grin. "And you can't imagine what that pent-up frustration will make me to do the likes of you." The other vamp thugs gulped at the thought – William the Bloody was alive and well.

"What do you want, White Hat?" Mickey daring asked, trying to mask his nerves.

Spike gazed at Mickey with a calmed face, studying the young vampire who looked about twenty-two and couldn't have been dead more than a few years after that. "And what did I say about being polite?" Spike reminded as he watched the sweat bead on Mickey's forehead. "We're all good men here," he continued, looking around the table. "I just wanted to know if you fellas had any plans this evening. You know, dinner… movie… rampage?"

"It's none of your business," the thug leader hissed.

"Pain _is_ my business, you twit," Spike replied smugly. "Now why don't you tell me if business is about to be good."

Mickey demanded, "What do you know?"

"Well, Mickey Mouse," Spike began, "I happened to overhear your stealthy rambling about how you were going to give the Slayer hell."

"Yeah?" Mickey said with a frown. "Why do you care?"

"Because I'm going to waste you," Spike answered with as a smile curled his lips, "or I'm gonna help you."

**7:54:06 P.M. PST**

Sophie and Buffy stood next to a metal box with wires coming out of it attached to the metal meat locker. Sophie carefully connected two wires as Buffy held a flashlight on the different colored strands. "All righty," Sophie declared as she twisted the wires together. "It's fixed."

"You sure?" Buffy asked. "You really didn't have to do much."

"It was an easy fix," she answered as she closed the box. Buffy looked back at Sophie with a surprised, confused expression. She never knew that her co-worker, who attended the last disaster of a birthday party she had a few weeks ago, was so good with fixing things.

Sophie put her stupid uniform hat back on and tightened the ponytail of her dirty blonde hair. A smile stretched her pink cheeks and lips as she glanced over at James who idly passed across the kitchen with a mop in hand. "So," she turned to Buffy with an excited grin, "who was that cutie you were talking to?"

"Huh?" Buffy responded.

"You know… the new guy?"

Buffy looked over at James as he pulled the mop back and forth across the floor. She was able to get a better look at an ornate tattoo on the inside of his other forearm. His look, his expression, didn't match his story at all. "I don't know what to think about him," Buffy sighed, shaking her head.

"I think you should talk to him more," Sophie replied. "Is he married?"

"What?" Buffy exclaimed, turning to he with a thrown-off-guard look. "I don't… No, I don't think so, but… I don't—"

"What's the problem?" Sophie excitedly coaxed. "Don't think he's attractive?"

"Well, no," Buffy answered. "I mean, yes. I mean… yeah, I think he is, but… I just…" She sighed, shaking her head, "I don't know if he's my type."

Sophie's face fell flat with confusion as she glanced at James, then turned back to Buffy, and then repeated. She glanced back at her and replied, "Strange. I kinda pictured you as a dark, mysterious, older-man type of girl."

Buffy's eyes widened and she could feel her face blush. "Uh…" Suddenly, both girls turned towards a crash coming from outside of the building.

"What was that?" Sophie exclaimed.

Buffy immediately went on guard as she replied, "Um… probably an animal or something. I'll go check." She walked towards the back door, leaving Sophie anxiously standing by.

**7:57:39 P.M. PST**

"A box company," James grumbled to himself in disgust as he wiped the floor. "Very nice," he sighed, shaking his head. "Idiot." Suddenly, he heard a crash and the voice of a woman call out in pain. He froze instantly as he heard what sounded like an animal's roar coming from outside. Before he could think, instincts immediately kicked in. For a moment, he was once again Jack Bauer.

His hand moved to a meat cleaver sitting on the counter next to the grill. James flew through the kitchen, unseen by his co-workers who were still busy tending to the business and did not hear the sounds of struggle outside. They seemed completely unaffected; as if the violence that may or may not be there was nothing new.

He bolted for the back door and shoved it open with the cleaver in hand. James entered a darkened alley lit only by a few distant streetlights and a naked bulb sticking to the side of the brick Doublemeat building beside the dumpster. His eyes immediately found the source of the commotion – a gang of several men surrounding a lone woman. Instinctively, he charged in the direction of the battle to see one of the men rear back and knock the woman to the ground. James pulled back his arm and sent the cleaver flying into the shoulder-blade of one of the attackers.

He heard an inhuman roar that he'd never heard before. The attacker spun around to face James with a face of fury and horror – yellow eyes, puffed-out, reptilian brow, and sharp, jagged teeth. The other nine attackers turned to him with the same deformities. Everything he had seen in his life and nothing had been quite like that.

His eyes widened as the monster pulled the cleaver out of his shoulder carelessly. James looked back to see the woman flip onto her feet – it was Buffy. In a flash, she stabbed something in the back of the creature facing James causing it to explode into a cloud of dust. James quickly realized that the 'attack' was more like a brawl with Buffy winning quickly.

She side-kicked the vampire to her left, breaking his knee and jabbed the wooden stake into the heart, killing another. A vamp approached her from behind, but she grabbed him and flipped him onto his back, burying the stake into his heart. As two charged at her from the side, she threw the stake with enough force that it cut through the heart of one and landed in the chest of the one behind him. Two clouds of dust broke out as the others maneuvered around her. Another vamp roundhouse-kicked her in the face, knocking her to the ground again. This time, she kicked the legs out from underneath her attacker and spun up to her feet.

Buffy grabbed one vamp that ran to her by the shoulders, picking him off the ground and throwing him into another. She turned around and promptly dug another stake into the chest of a vampire behind her. The vampire that kicked her earlier she hit in the face with two quick jabs and then she took him out with the stake.

The second-to-last vampire grabbed her suddenly from behind, pulling her stake away from her and holding her arms to her body. He opened his jaws wide to clamp down on her neck, but tasted the leather of her shoe when she kicked up and hit him in the face. She spun around and kicked him in the chest, throwing him backwards into a wooden crate, smashing it as dusted on a piece of the wood.

The last vampire ran down the alley at Buffy full speed, but she dove for the ground and rolled. When she came to a stand, she had in her hand the meat cleaver and she let it fly, cutting through the neck of the vamp and dusting him.

An eerie calm came over the alley as the dust fell and was carried away by the wind. Buffy turned away from the remains of her attackers to face James, who stood wide-eyed and confused. She stared at him blankly, knowing that she had made a terrible mistake.

**7:59:33 P.M. PST**

Spike followed the vamps outside of Willy's Bar to a back alley where a dark van was parked. They opened the door of the van to reveal an arsenal of high-tech machine guns, body armor, and at least one rocket launcher. Spike's eyes widened as he realized just how much hell the vamp gang was ready to raise.

**  
7:59:58… **

7:59:59…

8:00:00


	2. 8:00 PM TO 9:00 PM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 8:00 P.M. AND 9:00 P.M.**

**8:00:00 P.M. PST**

James stared down at the dust and looked up at Buffy with wide eyes. "James," Buffy began with a worried frown on her face. She knew she was stuck in a tight spot that she'd have to be creative to get out of. James continued to stare motionlessly – he couldn't remember ever being _that_ stunned by anything.

"What…?" he said, staring down and shaking his head at the disappearing dust as it was picked up by the wind, completely overwhelmed. He then looked up at Buffy herself with a mixture of awe and fear. "Who are you?"

"Look," Buffy began, holding up her hands as if she were trying to calm him. "I can explain this—"

She stopped in the middle of her sentence as the back door swung open and Brick marched out, red-faced and confused. "What's going on out here?" he demanded. "Why aren't you two inside working?" His eyes widened with frustration, "And where are your hats!" Brick walked over to them both as he crossed his arms in anger. James saw Buffy's green eyes settle on him with a wide-eyed look of desperation. "Buffy!" Brick hissed. "This is at least the fourth time I've caught you back here slacking off! At least you're not here with that British punk with the white hair!"

Buffy's face instantly turned red as she turned towards her manager. "Mr. Spain, I was… I can explain, I—"

"She was showing me where the dumpster was," James explained suddenly and calmly. "I tried to find it myself, but I couldn't. I'm not very good with directions." Buffy turned to him with a stunned look as Brick's temper dissipated. "It's my fault, sir," James continued. "Don't be angry with her." Brick carefully studied him and the settings around him. He looked back at Buffy suspiciously. It wasn't the best excuse he'd ever heard, but it was dark and no one in Sunnydale hung out in an alley for long.

"Very well," Brick sighed. "Just… get back to work." He turned around and walked back into the restaurant leaving Buffy and James alone. They both watched him go and waited until he had disappeared before they faced each other again.

**8:23:26 P.M. PST**

Spike stood in a crypt with at least twenty other vampires, including the five he came with from Willy's Bar. However, the once-tough thugs that Spike had seen were now stripped down to their core: five, hopeless cowards standing in front of their real boss. All five of them had their hands in their pockets or behind their backs and their heads on the ground as another vampire walked among them.

Spike watched him carefully and warily – this was no amateur. The man of over six feet was dressed in work boots and dark, nearly black jeans. He wore a dark olive button-up shirt and had an expression of calmness and disgust plastered on his face. He had short, dark blonde hair and only looked about thirty. As a vampire, he wasn't that old, but he was definitely the leader of this group. At some times, he would smile with satisfaction, but even his smile was so unsettling that one would not dare blink for fear that their throat would be torn out in the half-second that the vampire was trusted.

"So let me get this straight," the leader vampire talked smoothly like honey and coldly as a corpse, "you… _found_ William the Bloody and told him what you were doing?"

One of the vampires spoke up quickly, "No, he found us—" Mickey instantly shot him a dirty look and the vamp silenced himself.

"Oh," the leader continued. "So you let yourself be found. And he knows about us and what we're planning." The vampire stopped pacing and stood before the five failures with his hands behind his back. "And yet – here you all stand. Not a single one dead, bloodied nor tortured."

The vampire that Spike had manhandled raised his injured limb. "I've got a broken hand, Elijah—"

In a flash, the leader ripped a hunting knife out of its sheath and slashed at the wrist of the vampire. He let out a scream as he saw his hand fall from his bloody wrist to the ground. "There," Elijah calmly said with a smile on his face. "Now you _don't_ have one."

The other vampires trembled in fear as the fifth fell to the ground screaming with tears coming out of his eyes, staring at his bloody nub. Elijah glared at them all as his voice rose to a shout, "If any one of you idiots has an explanation for me, say it now!" The other four were silent.

Elijah walked up to Mickey and glared him in the eyes. "I have some good news, Mickey," he began. "I happen to be a big fan of the old Spike. I like him. I'll let him stay." Mickey slowly relaxed as Elijah smiled wide. He returned the smile as Elijah added, "But here's the not-so-good news. You've been replaced." Elijah pulled out a stake and jabbed it through Mickey's heart, dusting him.

Spike watched with surprise, as did the other vampires in the crypt. Elijah turned around and walked up to Spike, staring him down with that same, creepily twisted grin. "Welcome, Spike," he said.

"Do I get to play on your team now, coach?" Spike asked with a smile.

"I wasn't lying when I said I liked you," Elijah answered. "But just so we're clear – I never said I _trusted_ you." Spike's smile faded as he and Elijah stood on the edge as he explained, "I don't know why you're here, but it doesn't change the fact that you were on the Slayer's team."

Spike shrugged, "All the more reason I can help."

"I hope so," Elijah nodded his head. "For your sake." Spike stood on guard as Elijah turned from him and walked towards the back of the crypt.

**8:35:54 P.M. PST**

Dawn Summers stared down at her math book blankly and tiredly. She sat in the kitchen on a barstool with her homework spread out on the island. Willow diligently washed dishes at the kitchen sink as Dawn sighed with defeat.

"This is hopeless!" Dawn spat. "Not to mention – it totally sucks." She turned to Willow, "Can I just drop out?"

"Everything will be okay," Willow rolled her eyes. "Just take it one problem at a time." She kept scrubbing the metal pot in her hands. "When you think you can't do it, just tell yourself you can." She kept rubbing the sponge back and forth, her eyes burning into the side of the aluminum. "You're the Little Engine That Could—"

"You know, we have a dishwasher," Dawn said, staring at Willow incredulously. "And also – all those dishes were clean."

"I know," Willow breathed in uncomfortable frustration. "I know. It's just that… these didn't look clean."

Dawn looked over at the pile of dishes sitting next to the sink. It was practically the entire kitchen. "Is this one of those things to keep magic off your mind?" Dawn asked. Willow stopped scrubbing as her face fell flat. "You don't have to answer that," she apologized.

"No, it's okay," Willow shook her head. "I just… I have to keep working. I'm getting better. I really am."

"Whatever works," Dawn shrugged with a smile on her face. "So, what's for dinner?"

"Xander's gone out to get some food," she answered as she turned the water off and dried her hands.

Dawn frowned and stuck out her tongue as she asked with dread, "Is he going to get another kids meal?"

"Only for himself," Willow answered. Their conversation was interrupted as the phone rang.

Dawn hopped off the stool and grabbed the receiver on the kitchen wall, putting it to her ear. "Summers house," she announced, then waited for an answer which did not come. "Hello?"

"Can I speak to Buffy?" a man said on the other line.

"Oh, she's at work right now," Dawn answered. "Can I take a message?" She was answered by a click and a dial tone. "Okay," Dawn scoffed at the rudeness of the stranger, "guess not."

"Who was that?" Willow asked as Dawn hung up the phone.

"They didn't say. It was for Buffy."

"Well, let's take another look at this homework before she comes home," Willow offered as she and Dawn returned to her math.

**8:42:16 P.M. PST**

Elijah stood in the crypt looking out of the small window at the graveyard outside. His cell phone rang and he quickly reached into his pocket and retrieved it. He flipped open the phone, already knowing who it had to be from. "Tell me something," he ordered.

The male voice on the other end answered, "It'll be done within the hour."

"It better be," Elijah warned, the flipped the phone shut. His eyes burned fiercely into the graveyard setting outside of the window.

**8:49:43 P.M. PST**

Buffy nervously wiped down the stove as her five other co-workers moved blankly and idly around her, save for Brick Spain, who was happily greeting people up at the front. She knew that James would eventually have questions, but she didn't know what she would say. She had done this a million times it seemed and always had a logical lie to explain her actions. However, this time it seemed that this stranger was too smart for that.

The questions would come. There was no doubt about it. But when?

She turned around to see James standing behind her, gazing at her suspiciously. "Who are you?" he asked blatantly.

_Okay_, she thought to herself. _Guess they're coming right now_.

"I already told you," she replied. "Buffy Summers."

"You were using some advanced martial arts out there," James declared. "Where did you get that training?"

"A girl's got to learn to protect herself." Buffy grabbed the towel and began to walk to the front of the restaurant with the others.

"From what, exactly?" James said, stepping into her path. She gazed up at him, trying to figure out what to say.

"Look, it was just a fight," she answered. "Let it go."

"I want to know who or what you were fighting with," James ordered.

"I don't know who you think you are," Buffy stated defensively. "But I'm not under arrest and I don't have to answer anything." James was taken aback by her sudden stubbornness, but that only made him want to push her harder. "Besides," she added, "it was only a trick of the light."

"You know that's not the truth," James replied simply. She looked up at him again and saw there was no more anger or authority in his voice or eyes. He checked around quickly to see that nobody was listening to or watching them, then lowered his voice down to a whisper. "Now either those guys that vanished into thin air were extras in _Deliverance_," he said, "or they were something else. Don't insult my intelligence by telling me they were just some guys who wanted your purse."

Buffy studied him closely. Her mind didn't trust him, but for some reason her heart did. She looked away, telling herself that she wasn't thinking right. Her long, hellish few months alive had finally caused her a severe lapse in judgment.

"Please," James quietly pleaded. Buffy kept her eyes on the ground as he reasoned, "Don't shut me out on this." She looked up at him again, realizing that his plea was a commentary on her entire life. Buffy had been holding the guilt of shutting out her friends, her sister, her watcher – even Spike, as much as she hated to admit that he mattered too.

"This town isn't… normal," Buffy explained but James didn't really seem to understand. He gazed at her somewhat blankly and waited for her to continue. "Those people weren't people. They weren't human." James' eyes widened slightly as he looked away, trying to hide the fact that everything he knew about the world just flew out the window.

"What – what are you saying?" James asked in disbelief.

"They were demons," Buffy answered flatly, blurting it out. "Vampires, to be exact. Sunnydale's on a Hellmouth, which means you just landed yourself in the middle of the Twilight Zone. Congratulations. Sorry for your property value's loss."

James stared at her in silence for several seconds. He then turned away with a short laugh, shaking his head. Buffy gazed at him without a smile on her face. Once he realized that she wasn't laughing and wasn't planning to in the near future, the smile faded from his face. "You've got to be kidding me," he suddenly declared, wide-eyed.

"See? I knew you wouldn't believe me," Buffy sighed with frustration.

"_Vampires_?" James exclaimed. "And what's a Hellmouth?" He stopped her before she could speak, shaking his head, "Wait – don't answer that. You can't be serious."

"Then you explain it, Freud," Buffy crossed her arms. "Did we just both have a paranoid delusion or are you still leaning on your _Deliverance_ theory?"

"I just want the truth," he declared.

Buffy snapped in frustration, "I gave it to you. What more do you want?"

"Are you always this defensive?"

"Are you always this commanding?"

"You actually expect me to believe that the town's overrun by vampires and demons and the reason no one has known about it is because no one would believe it and the government's been hiding it and the police are too dense to accept it?"

Buffy exclaimed, "Yes—" She suddenly froze as an eerie feeling shot through her bones.

"What is it?" James asked, noting the sudden change. She glanced around, on high alert, her Slayer sense going frantic. Buffy and James looked up at the front of the restaurant as one-by-one ten thuggish-looking guys in long trench coats marched in. There were about twelve other people of all ages sitting in the booths enjoying their meals that stopped and gazed at the strange sight. An old man at the register stopped and turned around as Sophie, who was taking his order, followed suit.

"Welcome to Doublemeat Palace, gentlemen," Brick greeted as he gazed at them with a strange smile. "Can I take your orders?" The gang smiled at each other and then turned back to the manager and the Doublemeat staff. Their faces suddenly morphed into vampire guise with yellow eyes and fanged grins. Brick and the others looked horrified as Buffy and James stared them down. The leader reached into his long overcoat suddenly.

In a flash, James grabbed Buffy by the arm and pulled her back behind the meat cellar as the vamp leader whipped out a machine gun and opened fire on the staff. Brick felt the bullets hit his chest and he was dead before he hit the floor. Screams erupted from the restaurant as the other nine vampires pulled out their guns and ordered the customers onto the ground.

**8:54:32 P.M. PST**

Spike stood with the rest of the vampires, quietly musing to himself as Elijah marched up to them. "Phase one is up and running," he declared. He walked up to Spike who was leaning up against a wall in the crypt. "We're going to phase two."

"What the hell does that mean to me, mate?" Spike cockily asked.

Elijah slammed his open palm against the stone wall next to Spike's head. He moved out of the way quickly, glaring at Elijah as a brick slid out of its position in the wall. Spike watched in astonishment as a black computer screen was revealed. Elijah pressed his cold hand on it as the computer traced his palm and read his fingerprints. He took his hand away and the words appeared on screen: User Identified.

A door in the wall suddenly opened which revealed another arsenal full of enough machine guns and ammunition to power a small army.

**8:56:27 P.M. PST**

Buffy raised her head off of the ground as the leader vampire finally stopped firing. She and James looked over to see Sophie cowering behind the counter, still alive, while the manager and the other co-workers were dead. The other nine vampires were holding the crying and panicking customers on the ground, pointing the guns at their heads.

She slow turned to James, gazing up at him with pursed lips. "Vampires," James nodded, noting her I-told-you-so. He took a deep breath as he quickly believed in non-human monsters. He slowly exhaled, "Okay..."

Buffy looked up at one of the vampires with a gun in his arms that slowly moved to the counter where she and James were ducking. He was facing the rest of the customers, shouting orders at them to stay down and not move. In a flash Buffy leapt up and grabbed the vampire from behind.

The vampire held down the trigger, opening fire all over the place. The other vamps dodged the bullets by ducking behind the tables and booths – anything to escape the blaze of shells. In a second she knocked the vampire onto his knees and whipped out a stake.

"Buffy, look out!" she heard from behind her. She turned around to see Sophie standing behind her with a nasty expression on her face as she jabbed something into Buffy's stomach.

"No!" James screamed. Sophie grabbed Buffy's arm and jolted her with a tazer, shooting as many volts as she could into her body.

"Sorry, Buff," Sophie grinned evilly as the Slayer went down unconsciously. James was seconds away from tackling Sophie went the downed vampire stood up with the gun in his hands again and aimed for James.

"Get down on the ground!" he ordered. James hands went in the air as he hesitantly lowered himself to his knees.

"Hands behind your head," Sophie barked at him as she pulled a pistol out of a holster on the vampire next to her. She aimed at his head as he folded his fingers behind his head, squeezing his eyes tightly closed as he cursed himself for stupidly charging without a plan.

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"Shut up!" Sophie hissed.

"You a vampire, too?" he defiantly asked.

Sophie pulled back the gun and knocked it across his jaw as hard as she could. "Nope," she smiled innocently. "Just doing my job."

He glared up at her for saying it. It was too close to what Nina Myers had said to him before he found his wife murdered. Two other vampires grabbed Buffy, picking her body off the ground as the vampire next to Sophie grabbed James by the back of the neck with the gun at his head and pulled him onto his feet. "Lock them in the cellar," Sophie casually ordered.

The vampires tossed Buffy cruelly into the meat cellar while the other pushed James in, throwing him on the ground harshly. "Don't do this!" James shouted as the door slammed shut and both of them were now bolted into the freezing meat locker.

With a devilish smirk, Sophie went to the thermostat which she had rewired earlier and turned the temperature all the way down.

**  
8:59:58… **

8:59:59…

9:00:00


	3. 9:00 PM TO 10:00 PM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 9:00 P.M. AND 10:00 P.M.**

**9:00:00 P.M. PST**

Xander Harris was sitting in his car as he pulled into the Doublemeat Palace parking lot. He glanced down at his watch as he parked in a spot near the back and turned off the engine. He just couldn't shake his worry. It was extremely late and Dawn and Willow must have been starving by then. He knew he shouldn't have started reading _Astonishing X-Men_ at the comic book store.

_I couldn't help it_, he concluded as he thought about his future explanation to Willow. _It's so damn addicting!_

He suddenly heard gunshots coming from inside the restaurant. He froze instantly, his military training from years before kicking in as he recognized the sounds as a high-powered automatic rifle. With a glance back to the restaurant which only lasted a few moments before he ducked down in his car, he saw that he was unfortunately right.

Slowly and carefully, he lifted his head over the seat and glanced through the back of his car across the parking lot and into the Doublemeat windows. He saw the group of vampires pacing back and forth, holding terrified customers hostage with their guns. He searched with worry, but couldn't find Buffy inside the restaurant. Was she even inside? "This is bad," he whispered.

Xander was shocked to see Sophie emerge from the back with a couple of vampires flanking her, carrying a pistol of her own. She seemed to be in charge as she ordered vamps to their positions and threatened customers to keep quiet. "This is worse," he added, with wide eyes. Xander hadn't the slightest clue that Sophie was working with vampires, and he was fairly certain Buffy didn't see it coming either.

_She must be hurt or tied up somewhere_, he concluded. For a moment, he thought he'd storm in and save Buffy, but then reality set in. That was not going to happen. He faced the front to see the road in front of him, just passed the curb in front of the parking spot. He turned the engine over, attracting the attention of the vamps.

Ducking his head down, he shifted into drive, stepped on the gas and drove over the curb onto the road, lifting his head to turn onto the street as a rain of bullets from inside the Doublemeat Palace followed him.

Inside the restaurant, the vampires stood holding their guns and firing at the car as it disappeared from view. "Hold your fire!" Sophie barked. They obeyed and halted their rain of bullets immediately.

"Should we follow that car?" one of the male vampires asked.

"Maybe it was a cop!" another shouted.

"It wasn't a cop," Sophie replied as she glared at the empty street. "The Slayer has friends. That was one of them. We don't have anything to worry about – they're powerless without her."

"Powerless?" a third repeated as he lowered his weapon. "I thought there was a witch with them. I heard she's bad stuff."

"Not anymore," Sophie smirked with satisfaction.

**9:06:47 P.M. PST**

Spike stood silently leaning against the wall with his hands on his belt as he watched the other vampires bustling around the dark crypt, moving in and out of the weapons bunker. Several of them came out, fully-loaded with shotguns, rifles, and handguns. Most of them wore dark clothing suited with hidden hand-to-hand weapons such as retractable knives and small hatchets.

They weren't just ready for a fight. They were ready for war.

Elijah strolled around casually while everyone else seemed to be carrying out their commands quickly. It was something that was expected. His demeanor alone – his calmness, his smoothness, even his twisted smile – inspired respect out of sheer terror. The prospect that they were standing next to a volcano that would most certainly erupt with the utmost pleasure brought fear into the unbeating hearts of those that called themselves monsters.

Spike continued to watch in silence, trying to distinguish and decipher their plans. No one had told him anything since he had arrived and it more than peaked his curiosity to know just how they were planning to take down the Slayer. They were getting ready to leave, based on his observations. The platoon was moving out.

"All right," Elijah began with a deep, commanding voice. "You all know the plan. Mistakes are not only unacceptable, they will be fatal." He let the final word ring in the ears of his thugs as they swallowed hard and stood with weapons at the ready. "If something goes wrong and you happen to survive, you will have _me_ to deal with." He began to pace and slowly declared with an icy tone, "I will make sure you are sorry that you are still alive as you watch me take your body apart piece by piece." His eyes flicked from side to side, "And they will be things that you will miss."

Silence fell upon them. If they had beating hearts, they would have been racing. "Any questions?" Elijah added, but no one dared to make himself known. "Splendid. Let's move out."

The gang of vampires quickly exited the crypt and marched off across the cemetery. "You're just gonna go like that?" Spike asked, as he and Elijah stalled behind. Elijah snapped his gaze over to Spike, as he threw his hands up quickly. "Now, now – don't go cutting off my parts just yet. But if the Slayer finds your boys, guns or not, they're dust."

"The Slayer won't be patrolling tonight," Elijah responded calmly as he glared at Spike. He stared at the leader in stillness as he processed the fact that Buffy might already be dead. "Just leave the details to me," Elijah added.

"Fine, then," Spike nodded. "You, uh… enjoy whatever you're doing and… I'll be right here."

"You're staying with me, Willy," Elijah smiled wide. His friendly grin chilled Spike to the core as he gazed at him warily. "We're gonna get a little collateral." Elijah waited patiently in the doorway for several seconds while Spike stared with a worried expression. Hesitantly, he strolled towards the door, regaining his signature swagger, and paused at the doorway.

"After you, mate," Spike said, stretching out his hand. Elijah nodded then continued out of the doorway of the crypt, following his band of thugs. Spike eyed him carefully as he walked out into the graveyard, and then followed him with a fierce gaze.

**9:12:23 P.M. PST**

Sophie stood anxiously as she stared around at the terrified men and women on the ground beneath her. They were the least of her concerns. She held her cell phone tightly in her hand, knowing that she should have received a call by now.

"What are we doing, Sophie?" one of the vamps asked, as he and the rest of the gang idly held their weapons at bay.

"We're shutting the hell up so I can think," she coldly replied.

The vampires glanced at each other with worried and distraught expressions. "You-you mean we don't have a plan?" another vampire nervously stated as he increasingly became more frantic. "We locked the Slayer in a box and we don't have a plan! She's gonna kill us!"

Sophie turned to him and aimed for his left kneecap, firing the pistol in her hand. The vampire screamed in pain as he dropped to the ground, still clutching onto his weapon. "Another word," she warned, "and _I'll_ kill you." She glowered at the rest of her gang. "We wait!" she announced. "_That's_ the plan!" After a few more seconds of her bitter stare, she scoffed in disgust and grabbed her Doublemeat uniform hat, throwing it on the ground.

**9:16:44 P.M. PST**

James shivered as he gazed around the darkened meat room. He sat on the ground with an unconscious Buffy in his arms. Packages of meat product, vegetables and other condiments were slowly becoming blocks of ice around them. The temperature had been adjusted so that they could not stay in the meat locker for long without beginning to succumb to exposure.

He gazed down at the woman he was holding and she wasn't sure if she'd been seriously hurt. Buffy stirred suddenly and slowly opened her eyes. "Buffy?" James responded. "Wake up… We have to get out of here." The information around her processed in her mind and she realized that she was in his arms. James slowly realized the awkwardness of the situation as well.

He let her sit up on her own and then kept the hands-off rule. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Sure," Buffy replied. "If 'okay' means having your co-worker-slash-ex-friend lie to you, kill your boss, then zap you and throw you in a freezing cold locker."

"It could've been worse," James shrugged.

"Yeah," she declared. "We could've been wearing those stupid hats." James laughed lightly despite the current crisis. He paused momentarily, realizing that he didn't laugh very often and he hadn't for a long time. He glanced over at her thoughtfully. It was a nice feeling.

Buffy looked around the dimly-lit cellar. "There isn't really anything that's gonna help us open that door from the inside in here. Unless they put some spare C4 in the ketchup box."

"That girl… is she a vampire?" James asked.

"No," Buffy shook her head. "I would've noticed it when I saw her. But she sure is playing on their team, though." Her eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms, "She is so not invited to my next birthday party."

"Say we get out," James began, "how many hostels are we looking at?"

"Ten, I counted," Buffy responded. "Eleven if you count Sophie."

"How do you kill a vampire?"

"With a stake," she answered, checking her pockets. "The last of which they seem to have cleverly removed from my clothes. There's also fire, sunlight and decapitation."

James gazed at the door fiercely, his mind churning. "I think we can manage at least some of that."

**9:21:53 P.M. PST**

Xander ran into the Summers home through the front door and rushed into the kitchen where he heard Willow and Dawn talking. "We got trouble!" he announced as he burst into the kitchen. Willow and Dawn stopped what they were doing and looked up at Xander with wide eyes.

"What is it?" Willow asked.

"Vamps have taken over the Doublemeat Palace," Xander breathed.

"Oh, my god," Dawn replied, an expression of shock coming over her as she asked fearfully. "Is Buffy okay?"

"I don't know," he shook his head. "I didn't see her. I think she's been taken captive."

Dawn desperately turned to Willow with a worried look. "Do you think she's hurt?"

"I'm sure she's fine, Dawnie," Willow answered. "She's had worse, but…" She looked at Xander with a confused expression, "How did the vamps take over Doublemeat?"

"I was able to get a quick look," Xander replied with a grim tone. "It's bad. They've gone all _S.W.A.T._ on us."

"Guns?" Willow exclaimed.

"They're packing some serious heat," he nodded. "They'll cut us down before we come in a hundred yards of them with a stake."

"What are we going to do?" Dawn apprehensively asked. Her pitch went up as she added, "How are we going to save Buffy?"

"Let's load up," Xander suggested toughly. "Let's get down to the Magic Box and see what we can—"

"Xander," Willow quickly reminded with a frown on her face as she shook her head apologetically. "No magic, remember?" He stared at her with a blank expression that slowly melted into a disappointed and frightful face.

**9:29:04 P.M. PST**

Buffy and James stood in front of the door as they each kicked it, trying to break it open. They left nothing but dents in the thick metal. "Why are we doing this again?" Buffy asked. "Do you really think this is going to work?" She sighed as she kicked another dent in the solid metal door, "I mean, I could blow this sucker right off, but the second we get this door open they're going to be ready and waiting on the other side."

"It's not about getting the door open," James answered as he lifted his leg and pounded the heavy steel. "It's about getting their attention." He breathed hard as he paused and glanced around the cellar. "Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna wish I'd taken a nap before work?"

"Is it getting colder?" Buffy asked as she folded her arms.

"I think that was their plan," he nodded. "Keep kicking, but slow down. Give it about another quarter hour."

"Why are we slowing down?" Buffy asked.

"The cold we might be able to handle," James answered grimly. "But we're losing oxygen. We have to get them to open the door our way in the next half hour." Buffy took a deep breath which she treasured more now that it might be one of her last.

**9:40:36 P.M. PST**

Tara Maclay walked into the Magic Box, chiming the bell at the top of the door to find Anya in the midst of a pile of boxes all around her. "Anya," she greeted as she walked in carrying three thick spell books.

"Are you here to buy something?" Anya immediately acknowledged with a smile.

"Uh…" Tara stopped in her tracks, her smile faded apologetically. "Sorry, no."

"Aww." Anya's face fell flat. She pounded her foot into the ground in disappointment. "There went the high point of my night."

"I'm just here to drop off some books," Tara explained, showing her the dark magic volumes in her hands. "I thought I could keep this stuff here for a little while. Just in case—" The words faded off.

"Just in case Willow stops by your house for a little reconciling?" Anya finished with a bored tone.

"I-I didn't say that exactly," Tara answered with a nervous blush. "Willow and I aren't back together yet. We-We're still… working things out, y-you know?"

"I thought you were done for good," Anya said as she lifted up a clipboard and went through the attached documents carefully.

"So did I," Tara sighed. She leaned up against the store counter, staring off into space as Anya worked busily around the circular reference table. She explained, "But after what happened at Buffy's birthday party – the way Willow handled herself without using magic even though everyone wanted her to – that kinda gave me hope. Maybe people can change."

"Well, if my days as a Vengeance Demon have taught me anything," Anya explained as she opened a box and started pulling mystical artifacts out of it, "it's that people can surprise you. And in the end, everyone's sorry." She paused as she considered her statement, "Of course, I usually was torturing them in some fashion by the time they admitted they were sorry…"

Tara frowned as her stomach turned, disgusted and hoping that Anya wouldn't embellish on one of her creepy stories from her Vengeance Demon glory days. She continued on about her business, not paying much attention to anything that didn't have to do with money, as per usual.

However, this time, Anya stopped for a moment and glanced over at Tara, noting the loneliness in her eyes as she stared down at the ground in silence. Hesitantly, she added with a sympathetic and sincere voice, "She _does_ miss you."

Tara looked over at her with surprise, not expecting such depth to suddenly come from her. After a few moments, Tara smiled at Anya gratefully as she turned away and continued on with her job. "Now if you think you're going to hang out here just because you've got nowhere else to go, you're wrong," she declared.

Tara rolled her eyes. "Well…" she sheepishly admitted. "I was kind of bored by myself at home. I was hoping we could… you know… hang out?"

Anya turned towards her and smiled warmly, flattered. "Here's a plan," Anya offered. "Why don't you go put those books on the shelves in the basement? And while you're down there, why don't you finish this inventory?" Anya handed Tara the clipboard with a wide grin.

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to sit up here on my lazy ass and plan my wedding," Anya beamed miraculously. "We should hang out more." Tara rolled her eyes again with a sigh as she took the clipboard and dragged herself down to the basement below.

**9:47:22 P.M. PST**

Sophie stood anxiously in the restaurant front, looking out the windows as she held the gun tightly in one hand and the cell phone in the other. They heard yet another bang on the door coming from inside the cellar. "They should've called by now," a vampire declared. "It's been almost an hour."

"They'll call when they've gotten their collateral," Sophie nervously responded as she chewed on her thumbnail intently. Another bang rang out in the restaurant. "My god! I'm so sick of that noise!"

"When are they gonna give up already?" a vampire spat with disgust. Another bang was heard, followed by a final one. Then suddenly, they stopped and silence fell over the restaurant. The vampires glanced at each other as they turned to Sophie for instructions.

"They stopped!" one of them excited declared.

"Or they died," another shrugged.

Sophie's eyes widened as she looked over at the vampires in shock. "Why didn't I think of that?" she exclaimed, throwing her hands on her head.

"What?" her thugs asked.

"We weren't supposed to kill them yet!" she declared in terror. "Damn it! Open the door now!" One of the vampires rushed over to the door, three others behind him and unlatched the locker. They opened the door to find Buffy's unconscious body on the ground.

"Uh, Sophie?" the vampire declared nervously as he entered the meat locker. "We've got some bad news…"

Suddenly, James dropped down from the ceiling on top of the vampire, throwing him to the back of the cellar and taking his gun. James rolled backwards as the other vampires struggled to lift their weapons and aim. Before they could, James pulled the trigger and unleashed a rain of bullets on them, shooting two in the heads and dusting them.

Buffy pushed herself up off the ground as the gun-less vampire struggled to get onto his feet. He grabbed Buffy's stake from his jacket and tried to stab her with it. She caught his hand with a smile. "This doesn't go with your outfit." She stabbed the vamp in the heart with his – or her – own stake, dusting him and retrieving her only weapon.

"Get out before we're pinned!" James shouted as he could hear more vampires rushing towards the gun blasts. He turned towards the doorway to see the third vampire with a different kind of gun in his hand. "Look out!" he shouted as he pushed Buffy out of the way and onto the ground. The vamp pulled the trigger and instead of a bullet, a dart flew out and stabbed itself into James' right shoulder.

He grimaced in pain as he lifted his arms and shot the vampire in the head, dusting him quickly. James grabbed the dart and yanked it out of his shoulder dropping it on the ground as Buffy jumped onto her feet. "They're coming!" she yelled. "Look out!"

James turned back to the doorway to see the rest of the vampires coming up into the meat cellar and aiming to fire. He dived for the door and closed it halfway, ducking down with Buffy as the foray of shells collided with the door. They held their ears and James held the door which shielded them from the bullets.

"Hold your fire!" Sophie screamed from inside the restaurant. "Hold your fire!" Suddenly, she jolted as a bullet-wound appeared on her chest. She looked down to see the pool of crimson forming through her orange-and-white uniform shirt. Blood dripped from her lips as she turned around to see the vampire on the ground with a blown-out kneecap holding a gun in the air. The vamp glared at her angrily as she stared at him in shock.

Seconds later the wall which they were near exploded inwards, killing them both. The customers screamed as rubble and ash rained out through the restaurant and the shooting vampires stopped in terror. They looked at the bellowing hole of smoke and dust and began to fire blindly into it as the lights in the restaurant went out.

Amidst the chaos, Xander and Willow snuck through the front door and began to wave customers towards them, slipping them out unnoticed by the panicking vampires.

"What was that?" James asked.

"Backup," Buffy shouted over the shooting outside that was no longer directed at them.

"Stay here until I give you the signal!" James shouted as he pushed open the door and rolled out into the kitchen, coming up behind the line of six vampires. One of the vamps stopped and realized that James was behind them and he ordered the others to get behind the counter while James rolled behind a wall.

James held down the trigger and killed a vampire that didn't get behind the counter fast enough. He pulled himself behind the wall as the remaining five unleashed everything they had on him. He felt a sharp pain in his bicep, but he let it go as he waited for the rain of bullets to cease.

**9:54:43 P.M. PST**

Tara scanned the shelves downstairs with a pen and her clipboard as her thoughts were interrupted by a load crash upstairs. She jumped, standing alone in the dark basement, and glanced up at the ceiling. "Anya?" she called with worry, thinking she might have fallen or - in Anya's worse nightmare - dropped something extremely expensive.

She felt a chill go down her spine and turned around to see Spike standing behind her with a frown on his face. Before she could think, he reared back his fist and slammed it across her face, knocking her out. An explosion of pain shook his skull, searing his brain. He clutched his head as Tara's body fell to the ground and he waited several seconds for the blinding pain to recede.

Once he was able to see straight, he grabbed Tara's unconscious body, picking it up and placing her beneath the stairs in the shadows. His head still throbbing, he walked towards the stairs, slowly at first as he struggled to pull himself together.

He heard a creak behind him and spun around quickly with wide eyes to see one of Elijah's vampires that had followed him through the basement. "What are you doing?" he asked in shock. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted—"

Before he could blink, Spike pulled out a stake from his duster jacket and drove it into the vampire's heart, dusting him in seconds. His head aching, he slowly calmed himself as he replaced the stake inside his jacket, the dust settling gently on the floor.

He walked up to the top of the stairs slowly and entered the store, closing the door behind him, now having regained his composure as best he could. Vampires were flooded across the storefront. Elijah, who stood silently near the counter as the other vampires scanned the premises closely looking for anyone who could be hiding.

Elijah turned to see Spike sauntering up to him. "Basement's clear," Spike declared.

One of the vampire lackeys suggested, "Maybe we should do another check—"

"Don't waste your time," Spike replied with agitation. "It's clear." He glanced over to see Elijah staring him down hard, reading his pale face.

"Fine," the leader responded after several intense moments. "Let's go. We got what we came here for."

**9:57:03 P.M. PST**

The shooting had decreased considerably by that point as James waited patiently with his back against the wall, holding his gun pointing upwards. He closed his eyes as the barrel rested against his forehead. Shells obliterated the edge of the wall inches away from him. He waited patiently until he only heard one lone gun firing away and he rolled out of his position, shooting the last vampire with a gun. Bullets landed in the vamp's chest and neck, but none of the shots were enough to be fatal.

"Go!" James ordered as Buffy leapt out of the cellar with her stake in hand. She countered the first of the four standing vampires, blocking his punches and kicking him in the stomach, driving the stake into it's heart.

Xander and Willow entered the fight from the back as the injured vampire on the ground reached for his gun. Xander dusted him quickly before he could reach the stock. Willow drove a stake through the back of another vampire, dusting him as Buffy destroyed the vampire she was fighting.

The last vampire, with terror in his eyes, bolted for the doorway. Buffy pulled back her stake and threw it across the restaurant. It flew and impaled the retreating vamp through the back into his heart, dusting him at the gaping hole in the wall. The dust of the vampires settled to the ground as the heroes glanced at each other, their racing hearts slowing down.

**9:59:24 P.M. PST**

Elijah and Spike walked side-by-side towards the five parked vans outside of the Magic Box as the rest of the vampire gang followed them. A straggler rushed up to Elijah with a worried tone. "Sir," he began, "we can't find Mitchell."

Spike recognized this name as the vampire whom he killed in the basement.

"Leave him," Elijah stated coldly. "We're out of time."

They approached one of the vans as a vampire opened the door for his leader. Elijah and Spike stared down at their target. Elijah grinned wide and Spike's eyes went wide as he viewed Anya, tied up and gagged in the back of the van.

9:59:58…

9:59:59…

10:00:00


	4. 10:00 PM TO 11:00 PM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 10:00 P.M. AND 11:00 P.M.**

**10:00:00 P.M. PST**

James stood up from the ground and emerged from the kitchen as Buffy, Willow and Xander stood with each other in the front. "Oh, my god," Willow began with heavy breaths as she ran over and threw her arms around Buffy. "Are you okay, Buffy?"

"I'm fine," she answered, as her heart rate slowed down to a normal pace. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're good," Willow nodded.

Xander walked over and hugged her as well. "Thank god you're safe. We don't know what we would've done if something had happened—"

"It's over," Buffy answered quickly as she pulled away. Xander and Willow felt a tinge of guilt again as they stood quietly in the restaurant, staring at each other. Buffy turned to the back and rushed around the counter, "James! Are you all right?"

James walked over with the machine gun hanging down in one hand and his other hand over his left bicep as blood trickled down his arm. "I'm fine," he nodded.

"Fine?" Buffy exclaimed. "You've been shot."

"It's just a nick," he shook his head, with a gracious smile. "I'll be okay." Buffy pulled off his hand and viewed the cut.

"It'll need stitches," she said.

"We should get that cleaned," Willow declared. "Let's take him to the Magic Box and get it sewed up." She looked up at James with a smile, and then waived her hand. "And hi – I'm Willow."

"James, Willow and Xander," Buffy introduced. "Willow and Xander, James Dawson."

"Welcome to hell," Xander greeted with a grin. They all quieted themselves as the sounds of sirens cut through their conversation. "We're about to get some company."

Buffy sighed, "I do _not_ want to explain this."

"My car, now," Xander declared. James held his wound and the gun as he followed Buffy, Willow and Xander out of the restaurant and into Xander's car parked outside. They jumped inside and sped off towards the Magic Box just before the police could arrive at the destroyed fast food restaurant.

**10:06:22 P.M. PST**

Spike sat quietly in the back of the huge van, staring at a handful of the other vampires, including Elijah. The leader sat in silence, burning his eyes into Spike, chilling him to the bone. Spike glanced down at Anya, who remained tied and gagged on the floor of the van, wide-eyed and tearfully terrified as they drove through the night.

"So what's the plan?" Spike asked.

Elijah's glassed over eyes fixated on Spike's face. "What do you mean?"

"Why do we have the girl?" Spike replied. "I mean, is she part of the plan… or just a late night snack?" Elijah cracked a small smile as he looked away from Spike towards the back of the driver's head without saying a word. "Is she the collateral you were talking about? What is the Slayer gonna do?"

"Why do you keep asking so many questions?" Elijah calmly stated, his eyes flicking back to Spike. "You should have more faith, Willy." Spike's face fell flat as his expression melted into a glare.

His eyes spotted one of the vamps retrieving a syringe from a black duffle bag. The vampire came to a shaky stand as he grabbed one of Anya's arms. She grunted and let out a muffled scream as the vamp found a vein in her arm and jabbed the needle into it. Spike focused carefully on the needle as the vamp drew Anya's blood carefully, aiming for a specific amount. When he was done, he yanked the needle out with malice and a wicked smile.

"She's not the collateral," Elijah explained. Spike looked over at him as soon as the vampire left Anya alone and retook his seat, carefully injecting the contents of the needle into a vial. "But she's part of the job." He continued to stare at the vamp as he cautiously placed the vial into a padded metal canister and tucked it safely away in the duffle bag.

"Who's the collateral, then?" Spike asked, still staring at the vamp in the corner of the van. After several moments without an answer, Spike turned his attention back to Elijah to see him sitting with his arms crossed and a haunting smirk on his face as he continued to stare at Spike.

Elijah whispered, "The Slayer's sister."

**10:13:02 P.M. PST**

Buffy walked into the Magic Box with James, Willow and Xander closely behind her. They entered the store to see the bookshelves and tables overturned, every bit of glass from the antique artifacts to the counter display smashed, and paper thrown everywhere. It appeared as if a tornado had ripped through the store and spat it out in shambles.

"Oh, no…" Willow breathed as she and the other two Scoobies gazed around the store in awe. "What happened here?"

"Oh, my god," Xander breathed, his heart racing as he began to frantically shout. "Anya! Ahn!" He raced around the store, looking under every fallen bookshelf.

"Just calm down," Buffy ordered. "Everyone watch out. Whoever did this could still be here." She looked back at James who was searching around the store. "You stay here," she said as she rushed off to the back of the store. Willow ran down to the basement, rushing down the stairs and froze at the base as she gazed into the shadows.

She could see Tara's unconscious body draped in the darkness beneath the staircase. "Tara!" she shouted in horror. She rushed over to her as Buffy ran down the stairs a few seconds later.

"What happened?" Buffy asked.

"I found Tara," Willow nervously began as she dropped down to her knees beside Tara's body. "She's not moving… She's…" Buffy ran over to Tara and Willow and quickly placed her ear to her throat, then checked her pulse.

"She's alive, just unconscious," she declared as Willow sighed with relief. "We need to get her upstairs." Buffy took Tara's shoulders and Willow grabbed her legs as they lifted her off the ground and carried her up the dark, wooden stairs.

They entered the store as Xander walked up to them and saw who they were carrying. "Is she okay?" Xander asked.

"She's unconscious, but I think she's all right," Buffy replied.

"I-I can't find Anya anywhere," Xander declared, his voice shaking. "I… I don't know where she is… She-she should've been here."

James watched him nearly fall to pieces from the other side of the store as they placed Tara on the ground. He glanced behind the shattered glass to the cash register. Slowly he moved around behind it, placing the machine gun aside and opening the register to find it full of cash. He glanced to the right to see a door leading to the alley outside with the alarm system keypad flashing a frantic warning. The door was slightly cracked open.

"What… what's happened to her?" Xander stuttered with fear as Buffy struggled to get Tara taken care of while Willow and Xander fretted around her. "Who would want to hurt her?"

"She's smart," James declared. Xander, Buffy and Willow looked up at him as he stood behind the cash register staring at the door. "There's no sign of forced entry on this door, which means she heard the alarm and ran. There's a good chance she got away."

"From who?" Willow breathed with wide eyes.

"She was your friend?" James asked Buffy, receiving a nod. "Whoever it is was looking for something or someone in particular. They haven't stolen any money."

"I'm guessing the fact that this so happened to coincide with our chill-out period in the meat locker isn't so coincidental," Buffy frowned.

"Anya…" Xander shook his head. "I should've been here."

"She'll be okay," James assured. "We'll figure this out."

Buffy went over to a cabinet behind the counter and pulled out a first-aid kit. "James, we need to dress that wound," she said.

"I'll take care of it," he nodded. "You take care of your friend." James reached out and grabbed the first-aid kit, walking over to a flat place on an overturned bookshelf and sitting down. Buffy watching him curiously, but thankfully, as he took care of himself and she moved quickly to help Tara.

**10:20:43 P.M. PST**

Spike, Elijah and the army of vamps with Anya being dragged along arrived at an abandoned factory where at least two dozen more vampires were waiting for them. The vamps stopped whatever they were doing and stood at silent attention as Elijah entered the main facility.

"Nice digs," Spike declared as he strolled in. "Where did you get a place like this?" Elijah ignored him, marching over to a wooden crate, grabbing a crowbar off of a table and popping the lid. "I mean, really," Spike continued. "This is nice. Roomy. A bit too roomy, though. Why so big?"

Elijah ripped out a crossbow faster than Spike could blink and shot an arrow into his chest. Spike jolted from the shot, feeling it pierce his heart. He glanced down in horror at the end of the arrow, expecting it to be the last thing that he saw. He stared at it as he noted he was not exploding into dust. _Metal_, he realized.

"There're plenty more arrows," Elijah stated. "And trust me, they're not all made of metal." Spike glared up at him with fury as Elijah lowered the bow. "You keep annoying me with questions," he warned, "I'll introduce you to every single one before your dust hits the ground."

Elijah tossed the crossbow aside, shouting to his lackeys, "Put her in the other room!" He strode away into a back corridor and out of sight, leaving Spike behind. He glared at Elijah as he watched him go, then ripped the arrow out of his heart and bent the piece of steel between his fingers.

**10:23:26 P.M. PST**

James sat on the toppled-over bookcase holding up the short sleeve of his orange-and-white-striped uniform shirt with his chin. He carefully sewed the gash in his bicep with the surgical needle inside the kit. It was odd to have such a thing in an everyday first-aid kit, but by now he figured that first-aid was an everyday necessity for this group of people. As soon as he had finished the last stitch, his light was obstructed. He turned to see Buffy standing over him with her arms crossed and a firm expression on her face.

James began, "How's… uh…?"

"Tara?"

"Yeah."

"She's fine," Buffy replied. "How's your arm?"

"It'll be okay," James smiled a bit, then returned to his arm.

Buffy continued to stare at him. "Did they teach you how to sew wounds at your box company?"

James' hand froze momentarily as he looked away from both Buffy and the wound. "I was a boy scout," James answered.

"Since when does 'being prepared' mean learning how to operate a machine gun?" Buffy asked. Her eyes were firmly on the side of his face, burning themselves into him with suspicion.

"How hard could it be?" James responded with a shrug. "Point and pull the trigger. I mean… any idiot could work one—"

"Well, I'm not an idiot," Buffy simply and calmly answered, "and I've noticed more than one coincidence tonight. Like the fact that all of this is happening on your first night on the job."

James shook his head and declared with more strength, "Look, I've already told you—"

"I heard," she cut him off, speaking softly. "You're just Average Joe from Smallville, U.S.A. with no knowledge other than your boy scout training." He looked up at her to see her deadly serious, but beautiful green eyes glaring heat on him. "And even though I am zero-and-one tonight against Sophie, I usually know a liar when I see one. Especially when he can chunk a meat cleaver across an alley and hit a moving object in the back."

James stood up defensively, pushing his former persona as far away from him as he could. "I don't know what you want me to—"

He suddenly froze in his sentence, his head lightening like a balloon and his vision blurring. Buffy stared at him strangely as he swayed and struggled to regain his balance. Within seconds, he collapsed on the ground unconsciously.

**10:31:53 P.M. PST**

"Don't make me have to repeat this information again," Elijah firmly declared. His small army stood side-by-side and all around inside the main room of the factory as he strolled calmly through the rows of vampires with his hands behind his back. Spike stood to the side and out of sight as he listened carefully and cautiously to the leader.

"In a half hour, the third team will depart," Elijah announced. "You will come back with results that are favorable to me, or you won't come back at all." Elijah turned to a muscular, dark-skinned vampire that stood over six-and-a-half feet tall and was 250 pounds of demon and pure steel. Second-in-command to Elijah, he was addressed by his men as 'sir,' but Elijah had a different, more-fitting name for him.

"Goliath," he began to order, "assemble your men. They must be prepared before they leave."

"Consider it already done," Goliath rumbled with wild, dark, glassy eyes.

"Splendid," Elijah replied. He turned to Spike, who watching from the sidelines anxiously. "Willy," he called, but received no response. Spike continued to glare at him in silence until Elijah finally restated his address. "Spike," he ordered. "I have a job for you."

"Good," Spike replied. "I was wondering when this party was gonna start." Elijah pulled his knife out of its hilt and threw it across the room into a crate on the ground near Spike. As terrifying as it was, the gesture was mostly unthreatening, but extremely commanding.

"Take that to the ex-demon's room," Elijah explained. "Bleed her." Spike looked down from Elijah's fierce glower and stared down at the glittering blade dug into the wood of the crate.

**10:35:19 P.M. PST**

The phone hanging on the wall began to ring inside the Magic Box as Buffy walked from the front of the store to the back, answering it with a hint of agitation – so many things already happening. It had been over a half hour and they still had no sign of Anya anywhere. Her cell phone was turned off and she wasn't at Xander's house.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Buffy," a familiar male voice on the other end exclaimed. She recognized his distinguished British accent immediately.

"Giles?" she said with immediate surprise. It had been months since the two of them spoke to one another. He had abandoned – or left – her and moved to back to England. Since their bitter goodbye, they hadn't made contact.

"I've been trying to reach you for over an hour," Giles said with an uneasy sigh.

"I'm kind of in the middle of something," Buffy curtly replied. "Hellmouth, remember?"

"Yes, yes, I understand," Giles answered with a tinge of sensitivity in his voice. He expected that she would be this way. Why wouldn't she be? "I know what's been going on."

Buffy froze. "You do?" she responded in amazement. _How? I don't even know what's going on_, she thought to herself; although it was something she'd never admit to her former Watcher.

"I got a call late last night," Giles explained, "from the Watchers Council. Apparently, Quinton Travers has been detained and questioned for his involvement in a conspiracy."

"Quinton, eh?" Buffy repeated with a sigh. "And when he tries to kill me on my eighteenth birthday, what do they do? Squat."

"Six years ago Travers disappeared for a while without anyone knowing his true whereabouts," Giles stated. "He claimed he was on a trans-dimensional retreat of some sort, but was grossly ambiguous about any details."

"'Ambiguous' as in he was actually living a life as a cross-dresser?" Buffy asked.

"As strange as it sounds," Giles answered, "how I wish it were that simple. It seems he was in the United States with a separate identity. He lived as Robert Stanton, the head of the National Security Agency of United States."

"Whoa," Buffy declared with surprise. "He sure took that 'double-identity day job' thing way too seriously." She added with a frown, "Now please tell me _that_ was the only conspiring done in this conspiracy."

"Unfortunately, it's not," he sighed. She could practically hear him remove his glasses. "Do you remember the nuclear bomb that went off five years ago in the desert?"

"Yeah," Buffy replied, nodding her head grimly. "That was the summer I was visiting Dad in L.A. I also happen to remember riots, chaos and a whole lot of running around."

He continued, "The Council was able to hack into confidential government files to learn that as Robert Stanton, Travers was personally involved in the conspiracy."

"Wait," she interrupted, baffled as she tried to remember her current events with much difficulty. "I thought President Palmer said that everybody who was involved in that was taken care of."

"Due to some technicality Robert Stanton agreed to resign from his position and return to England," Giles stated. "But we believe his part in the conspiracy was simply a façade to mask what he was truly doing."

"A cover up of a cover up?" she replied in confusion.

"Precisely," he explained. "Now obviously, there's no file or record that we could find on his activities in the U.S. before being discovered, but we have reason to believe that he was extremely interested in the business of your first Watcher, Merrick Jamison-Smyth."

Buffy's jaw went agape as she heard the name. It had been over six years since he had been mentioned. It only brought back bitter memories of her slaying in Los Angeles before she moved to Sunnydale, and how he sacrificed himself in a fight with a vampire.

"What does he have to do with this?" she breathed.

He replied at a loss, "I'm not sure, Buffy. But we're finding out things about both of them that we had never known before." Buffy held the phone tightly in her hand as she stared into the blank space in front of her, memories filling her mind. "We'll get to the bottom of this," Giles added. "I promise."

She was quiet as she gazed into space motionlessly. She finally replied, "Let me know when you get anything."

**10:44:09 P.M. PST**

Audrey Raines, the daughter of Secretary of State James Heller and the new widow of Agent Paul Raines, paced back and forth with her cell phone to her ear tiredly. It was the tragic end to a very long day inside Los Angeles' Counter Terrorism Unit. She had seen a side of the man she thought she loved, a side she was oblivious to until now. A side that was almost inhuman to her. A side that terrified her.

She froze in her steps as she heard the door open behind her. Jack Bauer walked in and gazed at her almost timidly. The voice of the woman rattling on to her on her cell phone melted into obscurity for a few moments before she was able to concentrate on the difficult conversation at hand.

"No," she answered as she turned away from Jack. "Commercial flights are still grounded. I'm… I'm trying to get Paul back on a military transport."

Jack flinched at the sound of his name. A dark guilt washed over him again as it had earlier in the day. He regretted terribly having to let him die. But he regretted breaking his girlfriend's heart more.

"Yeah," she continued her conversation on the phone. Her back was firmly turned towards him. "I haven't taken care of his funeral arrangements yet. I still need to call his mother. Listen, I'm gonna… I'm gonna have to get back to you. There's something that I need to deal with."

Audrey hung up the phone as he stepped up to her meekly. He remembered the times when he used to march like a lion.

Jack stared at her blankly as she turned her tired face towards him. There were so many things to say – so many things to put into grand words.

"Hey," he said. It was the only thing he had enough courage to finish.

"Hey," she replied, to the relief of his racing heart.

Jack briefly looked away, and then turned back to her, "Your father said you were going back to Washington tomorrow."

"Yeah," Audrey answered. "I have to take care of Paul's funeral."

"Yeah," he nodded with understanding. He didn't want to say it, but he had to ask. "And after that?" He glanced up at her again to see her look away with difficultly. "I'm sorry," he immediately added. "I know this isn't the right time to be talking about everything." The rate of his words increased as he felt he was trying to save a sinking ship with them. "Maybe tomorrow before you catch your flight… we could… We could get together…"

"Jack, I don't think that's a good idea," Audrey responded, cutting him off. He looked at her blankly. Truthfully, he was terrified, but being Jack Bauer required that he could not show it. To anyone. Ever.

He softly replied, "I thought we agreed that we… wouldn't make those kinds of decisions today."

"I know," she said, shaking her head, "it's just—"

"Audrey," Jack declared, fear gripping his heart as he pleaded with her. "I love you. I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. That's all I want."

"We both know that you belong here, Jack," she replied apologetically. "At CTU, doing what you do best. And thank God there are people like you who can deal with that world." She looked up at him with eyes full of pity. "But I can't."

He could hear his heart break inside his chest. He was losing the one thing that brought him the most joy since he held Teri's bloody, lifeless body in arms in that very building, sobbing with guilt.

"Please don't say that," he breathed, shaking his head.

"Oh, Jack…" she said, grasping him tightly. "Oh, Jack. I love you… but after today… it's just… It won't work." He felt stinging in his eyes as she caressed his face. He was dangling in her wake. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry." She moved in to kiss him goodbye, but he did not permit her. Instead, he pulled her hands away from him and stepped back, staring blankly into the space between them.

"Jack?" she said to him. She had never seen that look in his eyes before. Not even in the midst of the darkness of the past day.

He felt his hand suddenly move without his consent. Zombie-like, he quickly gripped the cold gunmetal of the weapon in its holster. Jack ripped the pistol out and emptied it into her chest in a fury which he had never known before, reuniting her with her deceased husband.

**10:55:27 P.M. PST**

James' eyes opened with a start as he shot up from the table in the Magic Box which he was laying on. His heart was racing a thousand miles a minute as he reviewed Jack Bauer's memories. _That never happened_, he told himself as he breathed deeply with wide eyes of fear. _That's not how it happened… I-I didn't… I couldn't have… It wasn't…_

It wasn't him.

He had to remind himself of this fact as he suddenly realized that he wasn't alone. James turned to see Buffy leaning against a wall with her arms crossed, staring at him intently.

"You snore when you sleep," she stated simply, unaffected by his nightmare. James gazed at her blankly, for a few seconds praying that she didn't see what he saw. That would be impossible, though. The burden of that gruesome image he would carry alone.

"Who's Audrey?" Buffy asked point-blank. He stared at her motionlessly, feeling his skin crawl and his hair stand up on end. He wasn't dreaming of himself. He wasn't even dreaming of Jack Bauer. He was dreaming of a monster. A monster that had nothing to do with who ever he was. Or so he hoped.

James stared at her in silence. There was no way he could answer, and no way could he respond. "I know you're lying to me," Buffy coldly said as she glared at him. "You're not going to leave this building until you start telling the truth." Her anger spent, she pushed herself off of the wall and walked away, checking on her friends.

James watched her go as his heart sank once more. There he was, sitting motionlessly as another woman that brought him happiness walked away from him. He pulled his gaze away from her suddenly. Did he just compare Buffy to the other women of his life?

**10:57:49 P.M. PST**

"Sir," Goliath declared as he marched into the main factory where Elijah was being briefed by a portion of his vampires that were preparing for Phase Three. Usually, no one dared to interrupt Elijah in anything. Goliath had exception.

"We cannot find Spike," he announced. Elijah immediately froze and turned to Goliath with burning eyes. In a flash, he bolted across the main room and into a corridor. He stopped at the last door and burst into the room to see nothing but dust and a lonely wooden stake on the ground.

Elijah stood still, glaring as he fumed in disgust. Goliath appeared behind him a few moments later with a gang of curious vampires. "What shall we do, sir?" Goliath asked. Elijah stared angrily and he stood solid as a statue.

**10:59:47 P.M. PST**

Anya ran as fast as her tiny feet could take her down the dark alley away from the factory. Sweat beaded down her forehead as she pounded her feet across the concrete. Everything inside of her wanted to scream as she fled from her captors, but she knew that the noise of her call for help would only make things worse.

She didn't need to be alive for over a millennium to understand that the vampires would hear her screaming. She hoped that they wouldn't hear her running. One vampire, however, _did_ hear her desperate run for help.

Spike watched as she bolted down the alleyway. He had released her and told her that it was her only opportunity to survive. She was on her own. Spike turned away and quickly rushed off into the darkness. Elijah would go ahead with his plans to kidnap Dawn. Spike would be there and waiting.

10:59:58…

10:59:59…

11:00:00


	5. 11:00 PM TO 12:00 AM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 11:00 P.M. AND 12:00 A.M.**

**11:00:00 P.M. PST**

Xander paced nervously back and forth while Buffy returned from the front of the store. "The doors are all sealed," Buffy announced, then took a seat on a stool near the table that Tara was stretched out across. James was quiet as he sat on the overturned bookshelf, paying careful attention to the actions of the Scoobies.

Willow stood anxiously beside her, fixing the blanket that covered her. Her eyes were full of guilt and dismay. There were a million things that she could be doing right now to help her, but she withheld the dark demon within her.

Buffy watched her closely and understood how hard it must have been. She glanced over to Xander to see his glossed-over gaze facing the ground. In his case, there was absolutely nothing that he could do to find her except roam the streets frantically, which Buffy would not allow him to do. He could have already lost the woman he loved, and he was helpless either way. As she continued to watch her two friends, something finally occurred to her.

This is what they were like the night that Buffy decided to sacrifice her life. It was the right thing to do, or so she thought… but it crushed her family. It only made things worse for them. So was it the right thing?

A few moments later, they heard a gasp as a breath of air filled Tara's lungs. Willow, Xander, Buffy and James looked over at her in an instant as her eyes popped wide open. Tara found herself staring up at the ceiling of the Magic Box and tried quickly to sit herself up.

"Be careful," Willow said as she gripped her arm. "Oh, god, Tara – we were so worried!"

"They took her…" Tara breathed in bewilderment. "I lost her… I'm so sorry… I-I tried…"

"Slow down," Buffy comforted.

"What happened?" Xander asked with his eyes wide and frantic. "Who took her?" he demanded.

"Back off, Xander," Willow replied with a furrowed brow. "She just woke up – give her a minute."

"We don't have a minute!" Xander exclaimed. He turned back to her as Tara gripped her throbbing head. "Who took her?"

"Spike," Tara replied through gritted teeth, clutching her head. "Spike… took her…" James watched their reactions, but kept his eyes glued on Buffy. She nearly lost all the color in her face and he could tell her stomach turned at the sound of his name. She swallowed hard as she looked down at the ground with eyes of shame. Before Willow and Xander could take notice of her expression, she quickly moved away, masking it from them in darkness.

**11:04:21 P.M. PST**

Dawn pulled back the comforter of her bed as she stood in her pajama pants and tank top inside her bedroom. She glanced at the clock with a frown. _Why haven't Willow and Xander called about Buffy?_ she anxiously mused. "If somebody dies," she declared, "I'm _so_ not going to Mrs. Bohn's class tomorrow."

At that moment, she heard a creak outside her window. Dawn paused quickly and turned to see the branches of the cedar tree outside brushing past the glass. She suddenly felt on edge and hoped that Buffy would fly through the door and rescue her again.

_No_, she thought to herself. _I don't need that. I can do this on my own. I can protect myself. _She went to her dresser and pulled out a stake. The second she turned around she opened her mouth to scream. Spike was standing behind her and gripped her mouth closed.

"Shh," he whispered in her ear as he moved her out of the door. "They're coming." They walked down the hall and rushed down the stairs as quietly as possible.

Once they reached the foyer, she was able to see the silhouettes of vampires standing outside the front door and living room windows. They tried to peek in through the drawn kitchen curtains. They were completely surrounding the perimeter of the Summers house.

"What are they doing?" Dawn whispered in terror.

"You're safe," Spike reminded her as he guarded her as the protective older brother he had become to her. "They can't come in."

**11:09:58 P.M. PST**

James watched intently from the sidelines of the Magic Box as Xander and Buffy remained in mid-quarrel. "We have to leave now!" Xander snapped as he furiously paced about. "We have to hunt him down until he tells us what we did with Anya."

"I'm just as concerned for Anya as you are, Xander," Buffy tried to explain calmly.

Willow was working diligently as she held a pack of ice against Tara's forehead while she tried to clean the cut on her check from where she hit the floor. Tara was seated on Buffy's stool which she gave up for her. They both glanced over at them, tuning into their tennis match every so often.

"Then why aren't we gone already?" Xander demanded.

"Look," Buffy sighed, "I would be there in a heartbeat if we were absolutely positive that Spike is respon—"

"Where's the un-positive-ness?" Xander exclaimed with disgust. "It's not like we need to call Dick Wolf! Tara's memory – not to mention her face – is pretty strong evidence."

"But it doesn't explain why he would do this," Buffy shook her head. James stared at her attentively, closely watching her reactions and emotions. There was something that she was hiding. Every time the 'Spike' named was mentioned, there was a twinge of pain and shame that flashed in her eyes. His mind went back to the comment Brick Spain made earlier that evening when he found Buffy and James in the alley alone.

"We all know that Spike's chip doesn't allow him to hurt…" Buffy nearly stopped in her sentence, faltering for a moment as her mind flashed back to the unsavory things she had done with Spike. "He can't hurt humans," she declared, a bit of darkness and remorse associated with the statement. "He knows that. Why would he try to hurt Tara? What would he want with Anya?"

"I don't know!" Xander shouted with unnatural fury. "Maybe it's the fact that he doesn't have a soul!"

"Xander," Willow said, his anger catching her attention. Tara took the ice pack out of her hand as Willow entered the conversation as a referee. "We all need to just… calm down and think," Willow breathed nervously. "Buffy has a point. What's his plan?"

"Don't you get it?" he barked back. "He doesn't need a plan! He's evil! He's a demon! A monster!"

"Then why did you let him fight by your side when I was gone?" Buffy defensively stated. She was growing far too weary of his loathing for Spike and her patience was stretching thin. "Why did you leave him with Dawn?" she asked. "He's fought with us through hell and—"

Xander lunged across the floor and pointed his finger in her face furiously. "Don't patronize him!" he spat lividly. Buffy was taken aback for a second by his hatred, fueled by his guilt for leaving Anya alone.

"Xander!" Willow snapped.

"Hey, back off!" James bellowed, standing up and taking his stand at her defense only feet a couple of feet away from Buffy and Xander.

"Stay out of this!" Xander hissed at him.

Buffy got in Xander's face with narrow eyes. "No, _you_ stand down," she ordered with a quiet, but deadly serious tone. "And you think about whether or not you wanna make this personal."

He gazed at her in silent anger, steam running through his veins. Xander kept this for several moments before he finally stated, "Personally? You should have run a tree branch through his heart a _long_ time ago." With that, Xander turned around and marched off headed towards the basement to be alone. He slammed the door as he continued, leaving Buffy and Willow numb in his wake.

Buffy was still for a few moments as she watched him go. James saw her expression melt away into a face of coldness and despair. Her guilt overwhelming her, she walked off and disappeared into the training room. "Buffy," Willow called after her, "wait…"

She glanced over to Tara for assurance. "Go ahead," Tara responded, and then Willow rushed off to aid her friend.

James and Tara were left alone in the shattered store. He looked over at her to see her sad expression as she gazed down at the ground, her head shaking in bewilderment. "This is all my fault," she whispered to herself.

"Don't say that," James stated. He looked over at him. "Sometimes these things just happen. People you love get hurt. If there was something that you could've done, I'm sure you would've done it."

Tara stared at him with a grateful heart and eyes brimming with tears as she lowered the ice pack. "Thanks," she nodded with a half-smile. He returned the gesture warmly and caringly, but noticed that Tara's face fell flat as she gazed frozenly at his chest.

"What?" he said, glancing down at his dirty, partially blood-stained, orange-and-white striped shirt.

"My god," she breathed with bewilderment. "That is one _hideous_ uniform." He looked up at her, somewhat embarrassed, but mostly amused. He stared back down at the shirt in total agreement.

**11:17:56 P.M. PST**

Anya continued her frantic run down a street and stopped suddenly. She was still too close to the factory and knew she had to make it away from the docks to be anywhere near safe. A van pulled out onto the street that she was on as she dived into an alley.

She heard the tires screech to a sudden halt and she knew she had been discovered. Terrified, she jumped onto her feet and ran down the alley and to the next street. A quick glance behind her revealed that two vampires were onto her as they raced down the alley behind her.

"No!" she screamed, her fear getting the best of her. She maintained her mad dash until she turned the corner of the old firehouse and disappeared from view. The vampires appeared as they ran out into the middle of the street and paused in confusion.

"Where'd she go?" one of them declared nervously.

"Keep your mouth shut!" the older, other vampire ordered. He pointed down the left side of the building. "You go that way. We'll meet in the back." They parted ways as the older vamp headed for the right as the amateur ran down the left. They both exited the street and disappeared into the alleyways and away from each other's sight.

The older vamp suddenly heard a crash coming from the other alley. He knew she was there. He bolted towards the back street and ran along the back side of the abandoned firehouse towards the alley where his friend had to have caught her.

The vampire dashed into the left alley and froze. The other vampire was nowhere to be seen. He looked down and saw shattered glass on the ground next to a pile of dust. He glanced up at the side of the building to see an empty silver box with a shattered glass door.

Anya stepped out of the shadows wielding a fire axe and pulled it back, slicing the vampire's head off from behind. She didn't loiter long enough to watch his dust settle as she ran with the axe down the street.

**11:24:34 P.M. PST**

Elijah arrived at the Summers home by a large black van with Goliath and six other vampires to add to the two dozen already there. The van slowed to a stop and the side door slid open. Elijah jumped out, followed by his second-in-command and the others behind them.

"Status?" Elijah shouted as he walked up the sidewalk. He gazed around at the perimeter to see the vampires covering the ground and the second story around the windows. If there was a way in, they would find it.

A nearby vampire, dressed in black like the others replied, "She hasn't let us come in, sir. She was tipped off by Spike."

"What do we do now, sir?" Goliath asked with an evil smirk.

"We continue waiting," Elijah stated.

The nervous vampire added, "But sir – Sophie has failed. The Slayer might know our plan. She might already be on her way—"

"Which would only make our job easier," Elijah clarified rudely. "The intent of this operation is to use the Slayer's sister to lure her out into the open so they could attack! Now get back to work! We'll wait as long as it takes!"

**11:32:19 P.M. PST**

Dawn stood back at the top of the stairs in the shadows against the wall as Spike stood inches away. Every light in the house was out, but all the outdoor lights were on which made the potential intruders easy to spot. "Why are they doing this?" Dawn asked fearfully. "What do they want?"

"You, Little Bit," Spike explained. Dawn's stomach felt like it was going to drop out.

"Why?" she exclaimed. "Why me?"

"You're the Slayer's sister," Spike answered, eyeing the doors and the roaming silhouettes closely.

"Why me?" Dawn repeated, with an agonized sigh.

"Hey," he said caringly, turning back to her with a serious face. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." The moment he affirmed the statement, all the lights on the street went off and the silhouettes disappeared. Dawn jumped as Spike went back on alert and grasped her arm.

"What happened?" she whispered, wide-eyed.

Spike gazed down the staircase at the windows outside. He could not distinguish any figures anymore, and could barely see anything. "They shut off the power," he declared. Suddenly, they heard a crash through the living room window.

Spike rushed down the stairs to see a black canister roll across the wooden floorboards of the living room. "What the hell is that?" Spike declared, watching it until it rolled to a stop. A half-second later, it exploded at the base of the couch and erupted into a fireball, setting the couch on fire.

"Bloody hell!" Spike spat as he dodged the flames. He ran back to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl sitting next to the sink – one of the dozens that Willow had washed earlier. He filled it with water, then rushed back to the living room. Now, the couch, curtains, and coffee table were quickly becoming an inferno.

Spike glanced down at the measly bowl of water. "Bugger," he sighed in defeat. Dawn rushed up beside him and stared at the fire in astonishment.  
"When did we get a fireplace?" she exclaimed.

"When we pissed them off by not inviting them in," he answered.

"Buffy's gonna be so mad!" Dawn declared before she bolted to the kitchen. "She'll _never_ leave me alone in the house again!" Spike followed her and watched her reach under the sink and grab a fire extinguisher. The phone on the wall began to ring, but both of them ignored the calls. Dawn was crossing the kitchen window when Spike noticed another lick of flame coming from the darkness outside.

"Dawn!" he shouted, tackling her out of the way. Another firebomb crashed through the window as Spike yanked her off of the ground and into the foyer. It exploded, taking the kitchen table and the fire extinguisher with it and leaving a pillar of flame behind.

"We have to get outside!" Dawn screamed.

"We can't!" Spike explained. "There's too many out there!"

"I think that was their point!" she responded. They heard another crash coming from the back near the laundry room.

**11:38:48 P.M. PST**

Anya finally got far enough away from the docks to stop. She approached a payphone and grabbed the receiver, dropping the axe on the ground. She quickly began to dial a number and was interrupted by a recorded operator.

"If you would like to make a call, please hang up, insert fifty cents, and try again."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Anya hissed with frustration. She hung up the phone and began to rapidly dial another number.

**11:39:31 P.M. PST**

Buffy hung up the phone in disgust. Willow, Xander, Tara and James were all back in the Magic Box front store after a few minutes of break time. All of a sudden, the phone began to ring again. She picked up the receiver and quickly began, "Dawn?"

The operator-machine responded, "You have a collect call from—"

"Pick up the phone!" Anya screamed into the receiver, loud enough for everyone in the Magic Box to hear.

"—Would you like to accept the charges?"

"Yes!" Buffy and Xander shouted simultaneously as he rushed over to the phone and joined her.

"Speakerphone!" Willow shouted frantically. "Speakerphone!"  
"The green button!" Tara clarified. Buffy pressed the green speakerphone button to hear Anya's frenzied voice.

"Xander? Are you there?" she shouted.

"I'm here, hon!" Xander exclaimed with sounds of relief and fear mixed together. "I thought I'd never hear your voice again…"

"I got away from them…" Anya shouted. "But they're still after me!"

"Where are you, sweetie?" Xander declared, his voice breaking.

Anya breathed, her heart racing inside her chest as she glanced around the dark, deserted street. "I'm a little ways out of town," she replied. "A mile-and-a-half away from the docks on the corner of… DuBose and Dennard."

"I know it," Willow declared.

"Who's after you?" Buffy asked. "Is it Spike?"

"No, it's these other vampires," Anya tried to explain. Her voice tightened as her nerves began to take hold of her. "Uh… they-they said something… something about Dawn."

"Dawn?" Tara repeated, her eyes wide.

"Who's Dawn?" James asked her.

"Buffy's little sister," Tara explained.

Buffy stared down at the phone in horror. "She hasn't been answering," she tensely replied.

"Xander," Anya began, "I think they're gonna—" Anya felt a hand on her arm as she was ripped away from the phone. The line went dead and all they could hear was the monotone beeping of the disconnected phone line.

"Ahn?" Xander exclaimed, his eyes widening. He shouted at the phone desperately, "Anya!"

Buffy stared up at Xander, instantaneously moving into action. "Xander, Willow, take Xander's car and get to the location Anya just gave us."

Willow asked, "Where are you going?"

"I have to get home and make sure Dawn's okay," Buffy nervously explained. She began to run for the door and stopped, turning to James. "You're coming with me."

"As someone who can help," James declared. "Not as a suspect."

"I don't have time for this," Buffy shook her head.

Willow stated firmly, "Tara's not staying here alone."

"I'm not staying here at all," she boldly responded. They turned to her as she dropped the ice pack on top of the table. "I'm going with Buffy."

"Fine," Xander agreed and began for the door.

Willow pleaded, "Tara, you're head—"

"I'm fine," she defended. "I don't need anyone to hold my hand." Willow was taken aback for a moment, stung by her blatant declaration and reminded once again that Tara wasn't under her advisement or authority anymore.

"Let's go," James replied, staring at Buffy with firm eyes. "We're running out of time."

**11:51:41 P.M. PST**

Elijah stood out on the front lawn as the first level of the Summers home continued to burn slowly. Too slowly. "This is taking too long," Elijah declared to Goliath, standing at his side. "They should have come out by now."

He stared intently into the flame. They could hear distant wailing of sirens quickly approaching. "Time is no longer on our side," Goliath stated as the vampires slowly began to stop and take notice. "The police will arrive soon."

"Why aren't they coming out?" one of the vampires snapped in frustration. Elijah continued to stare silently into the flame. A realization suddenly came over him.

"The sewers," he calmly, slowly and furiously declared. "They went through the sewers."

**11:54:59 P.M. PST**

Dawn and Spike ran hand-in-hand through the dark, dank sewers as he led her away from the Summers residence and down Revello Drive from beneath the street. He, too, could hear the approaching sirens.

Dawn kept running behind Spike, feeling like her slipper-ed feet were barely touching the water covering the floor of the tunnels. Spike was flying through the air while Dawn struggled to keep up. The smell of dead things and things she didn't want to picture threatened to choke her. It was pitch black all around her and she felt like she was going to smack into a disgusting, grimy wall any second.

They finally arrived in a tunnel that had dim light at the end. They must have made it to another block where the power was on. "Spike, slow down!" Dawn pleaded.

"We can't!" he replied as he rounded a corner. "They're right behind us."

"Wrong," they heard a voice boom. Spike and Dawn froze as she nearly crashed into him. Spike's eyes were wide as he faced Elijah and several of his vampires behind them. A twisted smile was planted firmly on his ex-leader's face as he stood in a relaxed stance with his hands inside his pockets.

"Run!" Spike ordered as Dawn rushed off down the tunnel as fast as she could.

"Cut him down," Elijah calmly ordered. The vamps opened fire on Spike and rained down a multitude of bullets on him. He was taken to the ground as he felt fiery stab wounds in his stomach and chest… seventeen in all. He could count and feel every single one.

Spike's beaten body fell to the ground and lay there at Elijah's feet. He stared down at the traitor intently for several seconds. Spike's eyes were fixated on him as Elijah softly declared, "I shot a tracking device into your heart."

Spike's eyes widened. Elijah grinned, "Kid's smart. But stupid enough to trust you." Elijah kneeled down at stared him in the eyes. "I knew you'd come in handy." Spike stared up at his face in horror.

"Go get her," he softly ordered as Goliath and a few other vamps took off like cheetahs on the Serengeti.

Goliath leading them, they raced down several tunnels with inhuman speed. Goliath himself moved like a freight train with the threat of obliterating anything in his path. He could smell Dawn's warm, sweet scent from miles away it seemed. However, the faster he ran, the more it seemed to dwindle away from him.

Finally he turned the corner and disappeared into a tunnel that was shrouded in complete darkness. He stopped in the pool of disgusting water covering the ground of the tunnel as he and the other vampires stared around in the dark. He listened hard for a heartbeat nearby, but could not distinguish one. Her scent was lost as well.

He looked down the tunnel and saw an uncovered manhole and several rungs leading up to the road above.

"Sneaky girl," he hissed as he darted down the tunnel and up the rungs. The vampires followed him and disappeared up the ladder and onto the street.

After several still seconds, Dawn pushed herself up out of the murky water before she vomited. Sopping wet, she took a deep breath and glanced back and down the tunnel to see that it was clear. Alone, she bolted down the tunnel into the thick darkness ahead.

**  
11:59:58… **

11:59:59…

12:00:00

* * *

Should I continue the story, or dump it? Review and let me know.


	6. 12:00 AM TO 1:00 AM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 12:00 A.M. AND 1:00 A.M.**

**12:00:00 A.M. PST**

Tara's car slowly pulled up to the curb of 1630 Revello Drive as Buffy leapt out of the passenger's side even before the vehicle slowed down. Terror grew in Buffy's eyes as the washing of red and white lights coming from the parked fire truck blinded her. White steam bellowed through parts of the house, though structural damage was at a minimum thanks to the timely response to the flames from the neighbors that called 9-1-1.

"Buffy!" Tara called as she jumped out of the car after she threw it into park. "Wait!" With the engine still running, she and James bolted from the car towards the house.

A passing firefighter tried to stop Buffy by blocking her path to the front door. "I'm sorry, ma'am," he began, holding up his hands. "You can't go in—" His words ended abruptly as Buffy lifted him off of his feet and tossed him out of her path. He rolled down the stairs of her porch, catching the attention of the other firefighters.

"Leave!" Tara shouted as she held up her palms and squeezed her eyes tightly closed. A shockwave of light burst from her hands and spread quickly over the lawn. The firefighters stopped and stared blankly for several moments. Tara continued into the house as James stood in the lawn bewildered and watching them intently.

The fire squad turned around and gathered their equipment, walking slowly towards the fire truck. Luckily, the fire had been extinguished and there was no need for them to be there.

Inside the house, Buffy ran through the blackened and charred foyer and glanced into the living room which looked the same. "Dawn?" Buffy shouted, but heard no reply. Steam rose from the couch and walls as she ran through the living room to the kitchen to find it deserted and badly burned. Tara rushed in after her, standing in awe of the damage.

"Dawn!" Buffy yelled out as she rushed back into the foyer and raced up the staircase frantically. James walked in behind Tara and gazed around at the damage. "Dawn!" they heard from upstairs as Buffy raced from door to door. She ran down the stairs to the foyer below a different person than when she ran up.

Tara and James could tell from her face that this was very bad. "I-I can't find her," she breathed in terror. Tears were gathering in her eyes and she gripped the banister of the staircase. "I shouldn't have left her…" Buffy whispered to herself.

The image of Spike dragging her off nearly stopped her heart and filled it with guilt and sorrow. Every moment she had spent with him now poured down her throat like acid.

"This is all my fault…" she said, staring blankly and shaking her head. "This is all my fault…" She suddenly felt a strong grip on her arm and was shaken out of her daze by James. He stared into her eyes strongly, only revealing the slightest sense of sympathy.

"Enough already," he ordered. "Snap out of it."

"You don't understand," she said, shaking her head with tears in her eyes as she stared up at him. Tara watched her with pity as she suddenly understood the source of her frantic, weak behavior. She recalled being in the Summers' living room just a few weeks ago and having Buffy collapse sobbingly into her arms. "He's doing this be-because of m-me—"

"You don't have time for this right now," James declared toughly.

She repeated, "You don't understand!"

"Yes, I do!" he snapped back. This pulled her out of her self-pity quickly as she stared up at him in confusion. "I know what it's like to have someone you care about taken away from you. And I know what it's like to be the cause of it." He glanced away from her for the slightest second, his own remorse becoming evident in his eyes briefly until they found hers once again. "Trust me, that can't slow you down right now." She gazed at him in silence as she remembered once again who she was and regained control of herself.

He looked over to see Tara staring at him with puzzlement. James now found himself being the subject of curiosity by both women.

**12:06:36 A.M. PST**

Dawn continued her frantic run down the dark, damp sewer tunnels, searching for a way out. She bravely crossed patches of total darkness and disgusting smells while hoping desperately that she was not being followed.

She stopped suddenly as she spotted a metal ladder leading up to a manhole above. Glancing around quickly from side to side, she gripped the rungs of the ladder and began to climb upwards and out of the sewers. She now had her freedom, but she hadn't the slightest clue where her sister was – or even if she was still alive. Where could she go?

**12:10:12 A.M. PST**

Xander pulled up to the curb as the tires screeched to a halt on DuBose Road. He leapt out of the car and raced up to the payphone where Anya had been. He found the receiver lying on the ground, the cord that once was attached to it swaying freely in the night wind.

Xander's eyes set on the ripped cord as his heart sank in his chest. He looked from side to side as Willow approached and could not find any sign of his fiancé. "No…" he whispered. "We're too late…"

Willow turned to him with a face of empathy. "Maybe," she began, trying to sound hopeful and strong for her best friend, "maybe she saw someone coming and ran away before they found her."

"Did they rip the phone apart, too?" Xander exclaimed with frustration. "He took her." His voice darkened as his eyes narrowed, filling with hatred of every vampire he'd ever met – Spike being the most hated of them all. "He took her again."

"We don't know that."

"Of course we do!" he snapped. "We should've killed him a long time ago! If we had he wouldn't of…" The words fell from his lips and disappeared under his breath as if he could not continue. Horrible thoughts began to fill his mind. "I'll kill him," he stated as if it were a simple fact. "I'll kill him when I find him."

"Xander," Willow shook her head, full of concern, "this isn't helping." Her face was plastered into an uncomfortable frown.

"No, it isn't," Xander replied. "What _would_ help is if I could kill him right—"  
He stopped suddenly, an idea occurring to him.

"What?" Willow responded, afraid to ask. He turned to her with wide eyes, full of hope.

"_You_ could kill him," he declared in revelation. "You could stop him before he does something to her."

Willow began to shake her head apologetically. "You mean with magic."

"Will, if there's ever a time to use it... it's now."

"No," she breathed nervously. "I-I can't do it."

"Yes, you can…" he pushed.

"M-maybe Tara c-could try…"

"There's no time for that," Xander replied impatiently. "You know she's not as powerful as you are."

"As I _was_," she declared. "I'm not anymo—"

"Yes, you are!" he shouted in fury. "You can do this and you know it!"

"No, I can't!" her voice fiercely boomed, each word being stressed harder by all the pressure and frustration her addiction to magic was placing on her. It seemed almost as if her eyes flashed with fire. It was enough to silence Xander immediately.

"I'm sorry," she said, after catching her breath and regaining her calmness. "That's something I can't do." Willow glared up at him defensively and daringly, "If you want to waste time by arguing with me about it then go ahead. But if not, we've got to find another way."

Willow turned away from him and began to scan the area around the phone booth. Without another word, Xander took a deep breath and helped her with the search.

**12:16:47 A.M. PST**

"Okay," Buffy breathed as she paced back and forth in the charred living room. "So what do we know?" Tara and James stood near the entrance and listened carefully as the wind blew through the gaping hole in the shattered family room.

"These vampires are well armed and they want your sister for some reason," James stated. James' eyes fell to the ground as he noted a broken picture frame lying near him.

"Which makes we wonder what Spike has to do with this," Tara suggested. "I mean, if he wanted to get to you… wouldn't he have just killed me?" She frowned suddenly. "Or not, if he thought I didn't matter that much. Damn, I hate being the sideman. But on the other hand – I'm alive." She looked up at Buffy's incredulous face as she stared blankly at her. "Oh, no – not to say that Dawn's not—"

"Thanks," Buffy nodded, signaling that it was a good time to stop. "What _else_ do we know?" James picked up the picture frame and stared down at it as he responded.

"I don't know much about Spike," James began, "but she _does_ have a point. Why did he leave Tara alive? He had to have known she would've given him up."

"And do you really think he went so far as to plan that attack on Doublemeat?" Tara added. "I mean, Sophie the evil mastermind running with Spike? That doesn't add up."

James continued to stare at the photograph of Buffy and another young blonde which must have been Dawn lying on their stomachs in the grass with a middle-aged woman that looked very similar to Buffy sitting behind them. All of them had wide, proud smiles – the normal American family… or so it seemed.

James asked as he looked up from the picture, "What would he have to gain from it?"

"I don't know," Buffy sighed, clutching her throbbing skull. "I just don't know. Any of it. God, times like this I wish somebody would come out of nowhere and give me all the answers! I mean, is he working for somebody?" She sighed tiredly, "Is he… is he just trying to get back at me…?"

"For what?" he asked. Buffy glanced up at him blankly, not knowing how to explain or what to say.

"Who knows?" a voice called from the foyer. James, Tara and Buffy turned to see Elijah standing next to Goliath and six other vampires behind them standing calmly and listening to their conversations. Elijah continued, "Who _doesn't_ have a good reason to kill their girlfriend?"

James, Tara and Buffy lined up as they became surrounded by the other vampires that poured in from the other living room entrance. Buffy looked to her right to see that even more vampires stood in the gaping hole of the living room.

"Who are you?" Buffy demanded. "Wait – I don't care. How did you get in here?"

"You should watch what you say," Elijah explained. "Unfortunately for you, we _do_ have all the answers." The vampires spread out all around them as the enemies eyed each other.

James stared intently at Elijah. Something about him caught his attention – in his face and in his eyes. The sheer lack of consideration or care. It wasn't just for pleasure, it was for business. He had seen someone very much like him in another life.

"What do you want?" Buffy demanded.

"Many, many things, Alice," Elijah grinned. "Much more than you can possibly conceive. If seems as if you've tumbled down into the wrong rabbit hole." He glared at Buffy with a twisted grin. "But for now," he stated, "let's just start with the basics."

Goliath vamped out and lunged at Buffy, quickly delivering a devastating punch to her face. James was about to intervene, but two vampires grabbed him on either side and threw him to the ground. Tara turned to see a vampire charge at her, but she ducked down and the vamp tripped over her back. She reached down and grabbed a piece of the broken coffee table and buried it into the heart of the downed vamp. Elijah stood as still and calm as a statue, staring unblinkingly straight ahead, with both of his hands firmly behind his back.

Buffy kneed Goliath in the abdomen then hooked him with her right fist. Goliath lifted her off of the ground and threw her across the charred living room. One of the vampires held James' arms behind his back as another retrieved a hunting knife and aimed for his chest. James foot went up, kicking the vampire in the head as he threw the vampire behind him onto his back and on top of the other.

"In the heart!" Tara shouted, throwing the makeshift stake at him. James caught it and stabbed one of the vampires, dusting him. Tara turned around to see two more vampires bolting towards her, and she ran into the kitchen while they pursued her.

On the ground, Buffy crawled towards the wooden chest against the far wall, but Goliath was on her feet in no time. He grabbed her by the ankles and yanked her across the floor away from the box. Buffy rolled onto her back and flipped up onto her feet, kicking the vampire in his fanged face. He swung a left punch at her, but she blocked with her left, then spun around and roundhouse kicked him backwards.

James yanked his table leg out of one of the vampires and into the next that tried to tackle him. He felt something stirring within him which had been long repressed. He looked up to see a vamp swing at him with a hatchet and he quickly leaned back out of the path of the blade. He used the table leg to block the next swing, and ducked beneath the third. As he ducked, he drove the table leg into the vampire's stomach, causing the monster to roar with inhuman ferocity. James snatched the hatchet out of the vamp's hand and sliced the demon's head off in a matter of moments.

Buffy grabbed Goliath by the throat while he was on the ground and buried her fist into his demonic face four times. He finally caught her fist within his own massive paws and kicked her in the stomach, sending her backwards into a burned bookshelf. She toppled to the ground as charred volumes on how to properly kill a vampire crashed down on top of her.

Tara rushed through the kitchen with the vampires right behind her as she threw open a drawer and stared down at it in confusion. She felt a rush of wind as a butcher knife flew by her face and dug itself into a wall. Tara turned around to see that some idiot had taken out all of the cutlery and put it by the sink where the vampires were free to access it.

She yelped as one of the vampires lunged another blade at her, and she ducked behind the kitchen island. Tara ran to the kitchen table and picked up a glass vase that had miraculously survived the fire and threw it at them, hitting one of them and knocking him backwards momentarily.

The shy witch turned around and saw three more vampires rushing towards her from the foyer, as the two vampires approached her from behind. Terrified, she ran up the stairs with the five vampires pursuing her.

Buffy came to her feet as two more vampires who were standing outside jumped into the living room through the hole and began to battle her. She blocked their punches and kicked one away while she threw the other into a wall. Goliath grabbed her from behind, wrapped his massive arms around her, and squeezed her trachea shut. Buffy struggled and gasped for air to no avail as the monster choked her from behind.

"Good night, little girl," Goliath grinned as he opened his jaws wide and lowered down onto her neck. Buffy lifted her feet off the ground and pushed herself off of what was left of the couch, sending the couch crashing through the living room hole into the front lawn and sending herself and Goliath backwards. He let go of her to break his fall, but it was too late.

Buffy hit the ground while Goliath crashed into the television set, electrocuting himself and setting his body aflame. Buffy looked over with disgust as the massive monster was quickly reduced to flaming ash.

"Damn it!" she spat, slamming her fist into the floor beneath her angrily. "Now I'm definitely gonna miss _The Dead Zone_!"

Elijah leapt like a tiger and jumped on top of Buffy violently, battering her flesh ferociously with his fists. She grabbed him by the throat and pushed him back as she watched his face transform into its yellow-eyed vampire guise.

James buried his hatchet into the chest of a vampire then struck him across the neck. He turned away from the exploding cloud of dust to swipe at another vampire's throat, dusting it in seconds. James glanced back at an oncoming vamp and ducked beneath a wooden club. He came up, kneed the vampire in the stomach, and yanked the club back and into the vampire's heart, dusting him.

Upstairs, the five vampires rushed down the hallway and aimed for the master bedroom – the only one with the door wide open. They raced into the room and glanced around to see it dark and empty. Suddenly, a bright, yellow light appeared from behind as Tara pushed the door closed, shutting them inside with her.

The vampires spun around to see Tara extending both of her hands towards them as a bright light formed between her palms. "Light of Sol!" she commanded. The yellow light grew instantly and burst into rays of sunlight that filled the room and dusted the vampires within seconds. Dizzied, Tara collapsed on the ground as the room darkened and was lit with nothing more than the moonlight outside.

James looked back to see Elijah pinning Buffy to the ground as his hands clutched her throat, choking her. Buffy stared up at Elijah's furious expression as his jaws began to open, revealing his jagged teeth to her.

"Give your sister my regards," Elijah hissed as he leaned down towards her throat. Buffy looked over the vampire's shoulder and saw James practically flying through the air with the hatchet pulled back. He buried the hatchet into the vampire's back and ignited a howling roar unlike any she had ever heard.

With the axe blade still inside his back near his spine, Elijah was yanked off of Buffy like an animal. Buffy sat up as she watched James bury the corner of the hatchet blade into Elijah's hand, nailing it into the wooden floorboards. James came to a stand, glaring down at Elijah in silent victory as Buffy pulled herself off of the ground.

A small group of vampires rushed into the living room, but as soon as they saw their fearless leader writhing in agony on the ground, they turned and retreated quickly. Buffy and James stared down at Elijah as he hollered desperately, then looked up to see Tara slowly and dazedly walking down the stairs, taking note of the screams.

Buffy turned around and went to the wooden chest in the corner, opening it to reveal a plethora of weapons. She picked a short sword out and strolled over to Elijah, holding the blade at his throat.

"Tell me what you've done to my sister and I'll make this a lot quicker," she declared vehemently, dangling the end of the sword at his neck.

Elijah slowly answered with a trembling voice, "She's… she's still alive. She… s-she escaped…"

"What did you want with her?" Buffy demanded.

"Noth-nothing," Elijah spat, his body beginning to go into shock. Elijah's eyes fell to the ground to the hatchet buried into his hand. "She… she meant… nothing…"

"If you reach for that weapon I will make sure you see hell _before_ you die," James warned.

Elijah's chest began to heave with agony. "You-you don't ha-have a-a lot of… of time."

"According to what you just said," James declared as he glowered down on the vampire, "we've got all the time in the world." He frowned fiercely. "You don't, but we do."

"Time's a-a funny thing," Elijah said, managing a slight smirk on his face as he looked up at James. "Isn't it, Jack?" His eyes went wide with horror as Buffy turned to him in confusion. Elijah looked up at him as he reached beneath his jacket. "Good luck," the vampire spat, then closed his eyes. He pulled a sawed-off shotgun out of his jacket and had barely enough time to put the barrel under his chin and pull the trigger.

Tara screamed as Buffy and James jumped backwards as an explosion of dust rained down on them, Elijah vanishing into ash and falling to the ground. Buffy and James both hit the ground as Tara opened her eyes with shock and bewilderment.

James could feel his heart beating out of his chest as he heard Buffy whisper, "Jack?" He turned to her with a stunned and fearful expression. Buffy slowly turned to him with a face of confusion that slowly transformed into that of rage and betrayal. "Who the hell is Jack?" Buffy demanded, her green eyes flashing.

"Buffy…" he slowly stuttered as he moved to his feet. Buffy came to a slow stand, her eyes burning on him. "This isn't what it looks like…"

"I'm going to ask you one more time," Buffy fiercely threatened, "and then I'm gonna find out with my fists." She glowered at him as he slowly backed away. "Who is Jack?"

He felt his heart sink as he saw in her eyes the same fierce anger and betrayal that plagued him his entire life. He saw it in the eyes of his daughter after he had to tell her that his mother had been murdered and he was powerless to stop it. He saw it in Audrey's eyes when he had to sacrifice her husband's life for the greater good. The man they were looking at with that wrath and heartbreak had returned. In fact, as much as he hated to admit it, he was always there inside of him.

The officer of the law. The defender of the innocent. The last American hero.

The monster.

"Me," he whispered, with sorrowful, dark eyes. He looked up at Buffy with a soft, shameful tone. "My name is Jack Bauer."

**12:33:02 A.M. PST**

Willow, with the fire axe in hand, stared down closely at the ground, walking around the telephone booth slowly. Her narrow eyes pierced the night air surrounding her, as she paused suddenly and gazed up at Xander marching around the corner of the building.

"I got nothing," he announced, walking up to her, his chest heaving heavily. "This is wasted time. We need to move."

"Move where, Xander?" Willow asked, as she continued to search the area. "There's got to be something here… It's like I can feel it."

"That's great," Xander sighed. "But it's not—" His words halted immediately as he stared down into the gutter of the street. "Wait – what's that?" He bent down and picked up a shiny medallion of some sort, holding it in the palm of his hand. Willow walked over and examined it closely.

A strange, loopy symbol and a triangle were engraved into the silver medallion, along with the face of a horned beast. The edges and curves reflected the moonlight into their inquisitive faces. "I don't think you'll find one of these at Claire's," Willow declared, studying the medallion.

"You think this belongs to Spike?" Xander asked.

"Assuming Spike is responsible for this part," Willow frowned. "I'm not so sure about that anymore." Xander inhaled slightly as he gazed down at the medallion, then glanced up at his best friend. "Come on," she declared, taking the medallion and grabbing him by the arm. "This is our only lead. Let's get back to the Magic Box and look this up."

**12:38:57 A.M. PST**

Tara leaned up against the wall of the living room as Buffy stood in the doorway to the living room with her arms crossed tightly, a bitter expression on her face. She listened with a clenched jaw and cold eyes which were firmly held on him. Jack stood in front of both women with a regretful expression.

"I had to change my name and leave town," Jack explained, barely able to look at her. "I-I've been dead to the world for about six months now."

"So you're like a… secret agent or something?" Tara asked, astounded.

"Federal agent," Jack corrected then added with a disappointed tone. "I… _was_."

"And the reason the government tried to kill you," Buffy nodded calmly, mulling over the shocking revelation, "is because you're a threat?"

Jack stood silent for several moments, not being able to look at her as he finally replied, "Yes."

"Don't you think this would've been useful information when we were locked in a meat cellar while a gang of vampires took hostages outside?" Buffy asked with a disgusted tone that grew more and more agitated. "Or how 'bout when Anya was kidnapped and Tara was knocked unconscious? How 'bout when they tried to burn down my house with my sister still inside of it?"

"I didn't tell you," Jack began apologetically, "because I tried to protect you. Anybody who knows who I really am is in danger."

"Well," Buffy rolled her eyes, "it's obviously a little late for that."

"I can understand how angry you must be," Jack replied.

Buffy replied bitterly, "I guess you're all about understanding, aren't ya?" She glared at him with an angered and equally hurt expression, feeling deceived and conned by the stranger whom she just put all of her trust in. Jack stared at her blankly, realizing just how much she had opened to him, and felt all the more guilty about it. "Isn't it a little coincidental for all of this to be happening the day you show up?"

"Listen to me, Buffy," Jack declared endearingly as he approached her. She took a cautious step back big enough and poignant enough to cut him deeply. His heart sank as he froze in his steps. Tara glanced back and forth between Jack and Buffy intently. His eyes fell to the ground and his face was stricken with a miserable expression that both Tara and Buffy – despite all her anger – took note of. His blue and green eyes found hers after a brief, troubled sigh.

"I know I haven't been honest," he pleaded genuinely, "but I haven't betrayed you. I swear, I didn't know anything about this world – vampires, Slayers, magic, any of it – until tonight." Buffy stared at him, studying his seemingly unadulterated demeanor. "I'm not responsible for what's happened," Jack promised, looking up at her.

She gazed at him with a withering expression. "How am I supposed to believe you?" she sighed.

"I'm gonna find your sister," he affirmed, to the surprise of both of them. Tara glanced over at Buffy, then back to Jack.

"Uh… how?" Tara asked.

"We've already established that she went through the sewers," Jack declared. "And there have to be other places to look. You can't search them all by yourself."

"What are you saying?" Buffy asked.

"I'm asking you to trust me," Jack replied. "And I won't let you down."

**12:47:57 A.M. PST**

Jack was walking down a darkened alley in Downtown Sunnydale, quickly approaching the Sun Theater. He had two stakes in his back pocket, along with a knife in a hilt that Buffy had provided him with on his belt. She had also told him that more than likely she would be headed towards either the Magic Box, where he was directed; Xander's home, where Tara was going; or Spike's crypt if he truly had nothing to do with her capture, where Buffy was headed.

He was both surprised and grateful that she would trust him again, and he kept repeating the need of finding her sister. As he emerged from the alley, he stopped suddenly and stared at the street around him. The night world was beginning to darken even more before his eyes. The lights on the street dimmed as the lines and curves of the world blurred.

Jack swayed uncontrollably. Lightheadedness and fatigue struck him like a massive storm, clouding his senses. Within seconds, his body went numb as he fell to the ground unconsciously.

**12:51:09 A.M. PST**

Kimberly Bauer stood in the driveway of the Matheson home in Los Angeles as the blonde, nine-year-old daughter of Gary and Carla rambunctiously raced about while she watched with a smile on her face. The young woman pushed her short, chin-length blonde hair behind her ear, and then turned around to see a man walking up the driveway towards her wearing a dark blue plaid shirt and jeans.

She pulled her face away from him, almost as if it would aide in him not seeing her. But she knew that wasn't the case. "Uh… Megan?" she asked the young girl, slightly nervously. "Why don't you go play in the back and I'll be there in a minute?"

Megan nodded with a smile and rushed off to the Matheson backyard while Kim turned around and faced her father. Jack Bauer, wearing a scruffy beard and a somewhat timid expression, stepped up to her with a hopeful and simultaneously terrified heart. His daughter wrapped her arms around herself tightly, almost protectively, and he noticed the backwards-step she took as he approached her.

He stopped where he was and looked down, wounded. "Dad," she breathed with tension in her voice, "what are you doing here?"

"Just came by to say hi," he answered, looking up at her with somewhat of a smile. She looked away anxiously as he stared at her, the happiness of being in his daughter's presence warming his heart despite the awkwardness of the situation. Kim turned back to him with a frown forming on her face that he had seen before. "Look, sweetheart," he began before she even said anything, "you don't have to worry. I didn't come by to ask you to lunch or to hang out. I just…" He sighed, "I miss you."

"I know," she nodded with eyes full of pity as she gazed up at him. "I miss you, too."

He shook his head with painful frustration and confusion, "Then why won't you—?"

"Every time I see you I think of Mom," she blurted out with a sigh, squeezing her eyes closed momentarily. She opened them to see his eyes fall to the ground and his face strike a miserable expression that she took note of.

"Honey," Jack replied tenderly, with a voice full of guilt, "all I ever wanted is to have the three of us together.

She shook her head with guilt of her own. "Dad, please…"

"I tried," he rambled on. "I-I did everything I could…"

"It's not your fault—"

"Of course, it's my fault, sweetheart," he pleaded, seeming to beg absolution that he knew would never come. "I know it's my fault—"

"Dad!" she exclaimed with pity as she wrapped her arms around her father tightly. He closed his eyes and hugged her tightly, remembering the past when he could do that any time he wanted to.

"I love you," he whispered.

Kim sighed as she continued to hold him close. "I'm not ready yet," she declared regretfully. She felt a slight release of his muscles as if he almost let her go. He didn't however, as Jack continued to hold her. Kim rested her head on his shoulder, hearing no response.

"I-I don't know… I don't know what else to tell you…" She felt Jack's grip slowly tighten on her, as if he were afraid to let her go. Or wasn't going to.

"Dad," she began, "I really have to—" His arms squeezed her with raw and vengeful force, as she grimaced in pain. "Dad!" she shouted, but the air was swiftly pushed out of her lungs.

Kim stood helplessly in the driveway with her father slowly crushing her with brutal force. "Stop!" she cried out as she punched her fists into his back to no avail. It was like battering a mountain of cold and uncaring stone.

She was somehow able to push herself away momentarily, but found herself in the grip of his hands again as Jack clutched her throat viciously. Kim looked into her his eyes with horror at the revelation that he was no longer her father. Inside of his multihued eyes was a mixture of rage and savage cruelty which she had never seen in the likes of any man before.

Kim gasped and strugged for air and she stared at the stranger's ferocious face as his grip tightened on her throat, crushing her collarbone inside of his fingers. She clawed at his unforgiving hands as tears streamed down her face. "Please…" she whispered with all the air she had left, wondering above all things how and why he would do this to her.

The only response she received came in the form of a twisted grin which stretched his stone face. In a flash, he grabbed her chin and jerked her head to the side, savoring the feeling and sound of the break reverberating through her flesh.

**12:56:49 A.M. PST**

"Help me!"

A female scream rang out through the street as Jack Bauer's eyes popped open with terror and revulsion. He threw himself up off of the ground as he glanced around from side-to-side with horror, his heart racing as he struggled for every breath he could take. "No," he breathed, his eyes wide.

"Somebody help!" another scream sounded out.

"Kim!" Jack shouted back as he scrambled to his feet, still in a daze. He bolted from the sidewalk and swung around a corner at the Sun Theater in a flash. He was blocks away from the Magic Box as he saw a teenage girl with long, dark blonde hair racing down the street with three, dark-hooded figures pursuing her.

Dawn Summers glanced behind her to see the three hooded demons chasing her blindly through the streets as they had been for a least a minute. She darted towards the Magic Box, praying that her sister would be there to save her as her muscles throbbed and ached with fatigue and pain.

"Buffy!" she yelled as she pulled her legs up one at a time, but could feel herself slowing down. She suddenly felt a forceful push on her back as she went down on the concrete sidewalk near the hardware store. She skidded and rolled across the cement, bloodying her left arm and chin until she was stopped by banging into the brick wall.

Her whole body was on fire as she dazedly glanced up at the three men standing over her wearing dark robes and hoods which covered their faces. Her heart skipped a beat as one of them pulled out a long, curved dagger and raised it over her body.

An arm reached out over the figure's neck as Jack sliced the throat of the attacker open. He grabbed the hand concealing the curved knife and plunged the blade into the eye of the figure to the right. Dawn pushed herself up with terror as the stranger before her blocked a punch from the third figure, then kicked the robed attacker away, the hood falling from its head.

Jack reached for a stake and gripped it tightly, but froze when he saw the attacker's face. It was pale and that of a human's except for one important trait: bloody, carved symbols replaced the area of the face where eyes should be.

The demon pulled another curved knife out and swung it at Jack, but he caught it, dropping the stake, and then broke the demon's arm with a twist. He reached down and grabbed the knife in the hilt on his side and drove it into the side of the skull of the demon, killing it in seconds.

The lifeless body of the demon fell backwards, landing on the ground as Jack and Dawn stared at it in bewilderment. Dawn gazed up at her rescuer with a mixture of amazement and fear. She glanced him over: an older, blonde, well-built man with short hair and bloody hands wearing a hideous orange-and-white striped shirt. He suddenly whirled around and faced her with an intense expression. Gritting through her pain, she tried to crawl backwards and away from her obviously unstable rescuer.

"Dawn?" he said, stopping her. She looked up at him with confusion. He stared down at her and whispered a soft plea with an air of desperation.

"Please… don't be afraid of me."

**  
12:59:58… **

12:59:59…

1:00:00


	7. 1:00 AM TO 2:00 AM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 1:00 A.M. AND 2:00 A.M.**

**1:00:00 A.M. PST**

Dawn stared up at Jack with astonishment and uncertainty as she sat against the brick wall of the alley. How did this stranger know her name? "Who are you?" she asked, rather demandingly. "Wh-What's going on?"

"My name is Jack Bauer," he answered with a calm voice, trying to ease her tension. "Everything's all right. I'm a friend of your sister's. I came to bring you back home—"

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"You don't," Jack answered. "You just have to trust me."

"I've never even heard of you," she snapped as she began to crawl backwards again.

"I know," he nodded, trying to give her as much space as he could without. "We just met tonight—"

"Why would my sister send someone who she just met tonight?" she demanded, her eyes wide and angry. "How could she trust you! She doesn't even know who you are!"

"You wanted to see her instead of me, I know," Jack replied simply and sympathetically. Dawn's mouth shut in an instant and she stared at him with peculiarity. "Judging from what I've seen tonight, your life is full of people who let you down. I'm not one of them." Her face was blank and stunned as he spoke with a gentle tenderness which was a brash difference from the monstrous demon-slayer that she had witnessed moments before. "She _is_ worried about you," he assured her kindly. "You have no idea how much." He kneeled down in front of her, eyeing her carefully, "That was a bad fall; are you hurt?"

She shifted her weight a bit and grimaced. "I'm… I'll be fine," she replied. He extended her hand to her and she hesitantly took it. Carefully, he helped her up to a stand on her feet. He examined the scrapes on her arm and chin while he pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and began to dial.

**1:03:29 A.M. PST**

Buffy froze in her steps on the sidewalk in front of Xander's apartment complex as her pocket began to ring incessantly. She yanked out Tara's cell phone and noted the unknown number calling: (481) 516-2342.

She opened the phone quickly and asked nervously, "Did you find her?"

"She's here," Jack replied as Buffy took a breath of relief. "You were right; we're a couple of blocks from the Magic Box."

"Let me talk to her," Buffy heard Dawn request. A second later, she heard Dawn's voice on the line, "Buffy?"

"Yeah, Dawnie, it's me," she declared with a wide smile of jubilation that she couldn't contain. "Are you okay? Did anybody hurt you?"

"I'm okay," she replied. "Where are you?"

"I'm on the other side of town in front of Xander's house," Buffy replied. "I thought you might have come here… Listen, tell Jack to take you home and I'll meet you there."

"Buffy," Dawn began worriedly, "there's something I need to tell you—"

"It's okay, Dawn," she answered. "I'll meet you at home. Then we can talk about everything."

"But Buffy, the guys that were after me—"

"They're dead," Buffy declared. "Just start moving," she ordered sternly with a motherly tone. "I want you home as fast as possible." A few seconds later, Buffy hung up the phone, leaving Dawn hanging on the other line.

Dawn looked up at Jack with a deflated sigh as she handed the phone back to him. "I really hate it when she does that," she frowned.

**1:08:19 A.M. PST**

Xander and Willow sat on opposite sides of the floor of the fallen reference table inside of the Magic Box, neither having any chair to comfortably sit on. Around them were piles of thick books that Giles had left to them. The silver medallion sat on the floor between them where they could both see.

Xander rubbed his eyes tiredly. "This is hopeless," he sighed with frustration. "We're never going to find anything like this."

"I found something," Willow remarked as she stared down at a massive reference book in her lap. She picked up the medallion and compared it to the symbol in the book. "This is part of an amulet worn by the Harbingers," Willow announced proudly.

"Harbingers of what?" Xander asked.

"It's not that clear," she stated. "The text that explains it – it's all in a different language."

"Well that was real handy dandy," Xander rolled his eyes. "Thanks a bushel."

Willow glanced up at him in annoyance. "Do you want to help me or just sit on your ass and make more negative jokes?"

Xander was taken aback. "I'm sorry, Will," he sighed, staring down at the floor with a frown. "I just… I can't help feeling like there's more I should be doing than just sitting here."

Willow nodded understandingly. "I know how you feel," she replied. He glanced up at her shamefully.

"I'm… I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier," Xander declared regretfully. "I've got no right to ask you to use magic. There's no sense in risking yourself."

"Don't worry about it," she answered, then placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll get her back, I promise." She pointed at her firm expression. "You remember what this is?"

He nodded with a slight snicker. "Resolve face." Xander stared at her gratefully, a warm smile stretching his face for the first time since Anya had disappeared. Willow glanced down at the text, then looked back up at him.

"Go look for a volume on Sumerian translation," Willow ordered. "There's a passage here that either refers to a great beast or… strangling poultry."

"I'm gonna go with the great beast," Xander declared as he stood up and headed for the back.

"Either way," Willow added, "I'd sure like to know a little about the great beast and how afraid we should be right now." The phone of the Magic Box rang as Xander passed it. He glanced back at Willow with a hopeful expression and grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" he replied.

"Xander?" Giles answered.

"Oh… Giles," Xander sighed. Willow stood up with wide eyes and went over to the phone as Xander's tone went grim. "It's you."

"I can tell you're elated," he responded.

"Anya's gone," he informed. "I think she's been taken. I was hoping that it was her."

"I'm very sorry to hear that," Giles replied, his heart sinking. "But I have some interesting news that might be related…"

"If you tell me you just saved a bunch of money on your car insurance," Xander answered with a deadpan tone, "I'm going to kill you."

"No," Giles responded, then began the report. "I've spoken to Buffy earlier and told her that Quinton Travers is under investigation by the Council."

"You think that has something to do with Anya?" Willow asked, putting her ear near the receiver. "And… hi."

"I'm not sure," Giles stated, "but he took a great deal of interest on Merrick. After doing some research, we found Merrick's name on a government list on an agency near Sunnydale. Somehow he's currently operating there in cohesion with Quinton and God knows who else."

"Oh, my god, Giles," Willow breathed, stunned. "Does Buffy know all of this?"

"No, I called hoping to tell her," he replied.

"How is this even possible?" Willow asked. "Merrick's dead."

"I honestly am not sure," Giles sighed. "But the Council is trying to get information from Quinton now. I know he's not going to talk easily."

"Unbelievable," Xander declared, crossing his arms with an inquisitive expression. "Who's Merrick?"

**1:16:45 A.M. PST**

Dawn and Jack walked hastily side-by-side down a dark street. In the distance, the clatter of a trashcan toppling over caught his attention. "Is this the fastest way to get back to your house?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Dawn answered with a slight grimace with her steps. "Buffy makes me take it all the time." He glanced down at her to see the obvious trouble she was having walking at his pace.

He asked with concern, "Are you sure you're all right?"

"I think I might have twisted my ankle a little," Dawn breathed, but didn't slow down her speed. "I don't think I ever ran that fast in my whole life."

"You run track or something?"

"Nah," she shook her head. "Buffy won't let me do sports. I think she pictures me fatally-wounding myself in mid-hurdle or decapitating myself with my ice skates or something. I guess the only real exercise I get is running for my life. Which I'm surprisingly good at by now, but I doubt they give out any medals."

"She seems to keep a close watch over you," Jack observed. "What do your parents think?"

Dawn looked up at him with an awkward expression. "Oh…" she responded with a frown. "My mom… died. Last year."

"Oh," he said, wishing he could retract his statement. "I'm… I'm sorry. That must have been very hard."

"It was," Dawn sighed. Jack turned away and glanced at the road ahead in silent contemplation, Kim's tearful image at her mother's funeral coming into his mind. "And my dad," Dawn explained, "he's kinda not around. Buffy takes care of me now. She's all I have left." Jack thought of how Kim must feel thinking she's an orphan and all alone. He hoped that Chase would be strong enough to console her, but he had serious doubts.

Dawn glanced up at his brooding face. "So, um," she began, attempting to change the conversation with the hope that it would be lighter, "tell me about yourself."

Jack looked away again. "There's not much I can tell you."

"Oh," she said, staring up at him. "Okay… well. How about your parents? Can you tell me about them?" He couldn't help but laugh a bit despite himself. It reminded him that once a very long time ago Jack Bauer was something more than a monster.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Where'd you grow up?"

"Not far from Los Angeles," he answered thoughtfully. He hadn't told anybody about his past in years, it seemed. "I wasn't really good at sports either. Had a crazy high school experience. Did a lot of things…" The words faded off into a smile as he added, "That I'm not particularly proud of now." He looked down to see Dawn smiling back, equally amused. "My parents," Jack continued, fading into memories, "were really nice. Decent people. Never believed in violence. Wouldn't hurt a fly."

She noticed that his tone got a little darker; his demeanor became a little sadder. "My stepfather was a total pacifist," Jack continued, mulling over his thoughts deeply as they walked through the night. "One night back when I was fifteen, he stopped at a convenience store for gas on the way home back from L.A. Somebody walked up to him and held a gun to his head… asked for all the money he had. He gave it to him – and his watch, and his credit card, and the keys to his car. The guy didn't even ask, but he gave it to him anyway."

Jack stared into the darkness ahead deeply. "Not because he was afraid," he explained, "but because he would've thought that a man so desperate to risk another man's life needed it." He swallowed hard, pushing out memories that had been long repressed in his mind. "And then he killed my stepfather. Just like that. Without another thought."

Dawn stared up at him, bewildered into silence. She was now the second person in the entire world that Jack had told the story to, Teri being the first. Jack continued to walk down the street, now rather aimlessly as he considered his actions and was astonished at himself. It was completely unlike him to blurt out those painful, old memories.

It was a comforting thought.

"What about your real dad?" Dawn asked curiously. "Who is he?"

"I don't know," Jack answered simply and truthfully. "I never met him."

Having the conversation brought up an important point in his mind. One of the reasons why he could never call his stepfather anything other than that is because he knew he wasn't his son. Jack Bauer – the man with seemingly no soul who had no problem taking another person's life if he felt the need – could _never_ be the son of such a peaceful human being. The great Jack Bauer was less than human himself.

Whatever kind of monster that was related to him through paternal blood, he didn't even know his name. He didn't want to know.

**1:23:11 A.M. PST**

Buffy paced around the foyer of the Summers home anxiously. She had taken off into a run from the second she hung up Tara's cell phone. "What if something happened to them?" she asked nervously.

Tara, sitting on the staircase, shook her head, "Nothing's wrong. It's only been a few minutes."

"We have to assume that whoever took Anya is still out there," Buffy declared tensely. "Our vampire friends that tried to massacre us about an hour ago may be dead, but they _have_ to be related to Anya's kidnappers somehow."

"It'll be okay," Tara declared firmly. "I wouldn't lie to you if I didn't think it was true." Buffy turned around and gazed at Tara with a slightly awed expression.

"Thank you," she responded, but frowned and turned away. "I know you're trying to help, and you are, but I just—"

The door swung open as Buffy spun around and saw a tall man in black leaning in the doorway, blood dripping down the frame. Spike stared at her with a wide-eyed expression as he held himself up against the door.

"Spike," she whispered incredulously as she stared at him. Slowly, her shock turned to bitter fury. In a flash, Buffy grabbed Spike and threw him on the ground of the living room. She pulled back her fist and slammed it into his jaw.

"You son of a bitch!" she screamed, her pent-up rage at herself and him igniting. "You didn't think ruining my life was enough?" She battered him with another punch. "Is this how you wanted to get back at me!" Buffy devastatingly punched him again. "You could have gotten her killed!"

"Buffy, stop!" Tara yelled as she jumped to her feet, but was useless against her heartbroken rage.

"Buffy…" he grunted.

"What?" she frantically shouted. "What more do you want from me? What's it going to take?" She suddenly felt two strong hands grab her as she was yanked off of Spike from behind.

"Calm down!" Jack ordered as he pulled her with all of his strength. He felt the power of the Slayer as he slowly dragged her back across the floor of the foyer. To Tara and Dawn's surprise, he was somehow able to withstand her fighting.

"Buffy, don't!" she heard Dawn shriek. Buffy froze and stopped her rabid struggle as she looked up at her little sister's stunned and aghast face. "Spike was trying to help me! He helped me escape!"

Her green eyes were wide open and her face was frozen into a horrified state, revolted by her own behavior from the moment Willow breathed life into her corpse to the present. Jack glanced down to catch a side-glimpse of Buffy's face as her eyes fell to her crimson-stained hands, Spike's blood covering them.

A long, shaky breath came out of her lips as she stared down at them, the sharp lines and reflections becoming a swift blur. Jack lifted her off of the ground and pulled her into the kitchen, walking through the broken glass until they reached the back door. He pushed the door open and stepped out onto the back porch just as she burst into tears.

He quickly drew her into his arms, folding them around her. "It's okay," he repeated, attempting to comfort her to the best of his ability. "Shh… It's okay…" The both of them shrouded in darkness, she sobbed on his shoulder almost uncontrollable, releasing a river of sorrow that seemed to be building for months. "It's okay now," he whispered.

"No," she cried, her voice shaking. "No, it's not…" He felt her tremble as she continued in between short, desperate breaths, "This-this is my fault… I-I should've never trusted him… I should've… never let him in."

"Buffy, listen—"

"You don't know…"

"You've slept with him," Jack declared. "I know." He felt every muscle in her body immobilize as she slowly pushed away from him, looking up at him with wet, mortified eyes. "You don't have to be ashamed and you don't have to explain anything," he quickly replied. "I've been in your position before."

She shook her head as she gazed up at him, stunned. "How did you—?"

"The disgust in your eyes," Jack answered. "And the guilt." Buffy stared at him motionlessly; she couldn't move a limb. He glanced back towards the front of the house, and then looked down at her. "Your friends don't know, do they?"

"Please don't tell them," she whispered as a tear rolled down her face. Jack reached up and wiped away the drop with his thumb.

"It's not my position to say anything," he quietly answered.

Buffy stepped back, regaining her composure again. She stared down into the darkness as she leaned back against the door. Jack remained close to her as she idly began, "I'm supposed to be protecting her from anything. Everything."

"You can't protect your sister from the world," Jack stated with reason. "You're not really supposed to."

Buffy shook her head in protest. "Jack—"

"Look, I understand that I'm new to this fight," he answered quickly. "But I'm not new to fighting. I think you and I have a lot more in common than you realize."

"I've saved the world five times," Buffy declared, with a slightly childish, challenging tone.

"I've done it at least four times," Jack said.

"I've died twice."

"So have I."

"My friends and I were possessed by the power of a tap-dancing demon who forced us to sing and dance in our own musical."

Jack stared at her blankly in stunned silence. "Well," he stated after a few moments. "That's definitely something I haven't done." Jack remembered back to his days at CTU and the friends and foes he dealt with. "And for that I'm extremely grateful," he added under his breath.

"I was chosen for this job," Buffy declared seriously. "I was chosen to have this power, and to make the hard decisions, and to—"

"That's not why you're here," Jack stated simply, cutting her off. She looked up at him in confusion as he clarified, "You're here by _your_ choice. You are who you choose to be."

She glanced down in contemplation. Grimly, she asked, "Then why I am like this?"

Jack looked over at her. Yet another comparison. His eyes fell to the ground. "Maybe," he responded with a slight sense of hope, "because it's the right thing."

She stared up at him, witheringly as she shook her head. "How do you know for sure?"

He sighed softly, staring into the darkness, "You don't."

**1:32:59 A.M. PST**

Anya opened her eyes and stared up at a darkened, white ceiling. Her head began to throb incessantly as she reached up and clutched it in agony. Anya realized that her hands were now unbound and she was left freely in a dark room, wherever she was. Her eyes rolled around and she found herself in a small white cell eight feet in length and eight feet in width.

She was surrounded by empty space and blank, padded walls on three sides. On the fourth side, she gasped as she saw a dirty, smudged glass wall with two vampires standing guard, staring at her hungrily. The cell was dimly lit and looked as if it hadn't been kept in years, with a blanket of dust on every inch of the walls and floor.

"Hey!" she spitefully declared. "I don't know what you're thinking, but you'd better let me go or they'll be cleaning you up with a Swiffer!" The two male vampires glowered at her with smiles on their demonic faces. "My friend is the Slayer!" Anya spat. "Well, she's more like my fiancé's friend; we don't really hang out that much. But that doesn't matter! I bet she's on her way right now… or soon. After she has a small emotional breakdown or something. She'll be really pissed off!"

"That's what we're counting on," a British-accented voice declared. Suddenly, a man appearing to be in his late sixties stepped out of the shadows, standing nearly six-and-a-half feet tall. Anya gazed at him with wide eyes, taking in his features as he gazed at her with sharp, blue eyes. Dark and light gray hairs protruded from his chin and upper lip in a thick mustache and beard. The man wore a dark green fedora and a matching raincoat with an old, plaid scarf around his neck that covered an old hunter green collared shirt and dark slacks. His eyebrows pointed upwards as he stared at her with large, deep eyes and a somewhat twisted smile.

He sauntered up to the glass wall with his hands casually behind his back. Anya gazed at him with a bewildered expression. This was no simple vampire. She was almost certain that it wasn't a vampire at all.

"Hello, Anyanka," he said with a soft, round tone that poured from his lips like honey. He was completely and utterly unafraid of anything that she had to threaten him with, and in fact he quite enjoyed her struggle.

**1:40:10 A.M. PST**

Spike lay on the floor beneath a lamp with his shirt removed as Jack moved across him with a pair of needle nose pliers. Buffy stood over them as she gazed down at the bullet holes in his chest. Tara and Dawn were standing in the foyer out of the sight of the blood and gore. Dawn had changed out of her filthy sleepwear and into fresh clothes after the quickest shower of her life.

Spike grunted in pain as Jack removed the final bullet and quickly wiped away the wound. He glanced up at Buffy, who had also changed into a red sweater and blue jeans. "I'm out of bandages."

"I'll get some more," she said, and walked out of the room leaving Jack and Spike behind.

"You haven't got the kindest hands, doc," Spike said through gritted teeth.

With a careless face, Jack reached for a bottle of rubbing alcohol and washed the wound. "Do all vampires whine this much?" Jack asked with a stone face.

"And what the hell do _you_ know about it?" Spike spat, glaring up at him with instant dislike. "Who are you anyway?"

"I saved your ass from a beating about twenty minutes ago," Jack answered simply. "And I just pulled every bullet fragment out of your body when I feel like I should be putting them back in." In the kitchen, they both heard the telephone ringing as Buffy answered it.

"Hmm," Spike laughed angrily, his wounded flesh burning. "Let me guess – the Slayer make you her new G.I. Joe toy?" Jack ignored his comments as he continued to clean his wounds. "That's so like her," he continued with a bitter smile. "Take a walk on the dark side, then run for the goody-two-shoes, Captain America-type to get between her knees whenever she feels dirty eno—"

Jack snatched his jaw shut and glared down into his eyes. "I was trained to be an effective, obedient solider with no enemies other than those to his country and who only uses force as a last resort in the name of justice," he whispered intensely as the vampire stared up and listened. Jack shook his head with a half-smile. "Trust me when I say the only part of that training that's still with me is the 'effective' part."

"Don't even think you can scare me, you twit," Spike threatened after Jack released his mouth. "I was trained to kill and torture hundreds of people. _All_ of that stuck with me."

Jack stared at him, and replied with a slight sense of self-loathing, "Well, there's one thing _we've_ got in common."

Spike eyed him bitterly and resentfully. "You don't belong here," he grinned. "You won't make it through the night."

"Well I'm here _now_," Jack answered with a dead-serious expression. He leaned in close into a whisper, "And if you don't start minding your mouth around her and her friends, _you_ won't be."

Buffy walked in and handed Jack the bandages as she announced, "That was Willow." Tara and Dawn walked into the living room as Jack placed the final bandage on Spike.

"Did they find Anya?" Tara asked.

"No," Buffy answered. "But they might have an idea of who's behind all this. That's why we need to get down to the Magic Box right away. Tara, Willow said that she needed your opinion on an amulet that they found that might have belonged to one of the kidnappers."

"I'm there," Tara nodded.

"Jack, the second we find out who's got Anya," Buffy declared, "I want your help tracking them down and getting her back."

"Sure," he responded as he came to a stand, wiping his hands off with a wet towel. "There are some things I'd like to get from my apartment – it's on the way to the Magic Box."

"That's fine," she agreed. With a sigh, she looked down at Spike as he picked himself off of the ground. "How are you feeling?"

"Nice of you to ask," Spike bitterly answered.

Guiltily, she replied, "Look, I'm so—"

"I'm peachy," Spike cut her off, saving everyone the trouble. "What do you need?"

"Everything you know, if you can make it to the car," Buffy answered.

"I can make it."

"Good," she said.

"What about me?" Dawn asked.

Buffy turned to her with a determined face of resolve. "Get some things for the night," she ordered. "You're going to Clem's."

"Clem?" she exclaimed. "No, thank you. I don't think an all-night marathon of _Welcome Back, Kotter_ is gonna help me right now. I'm going with you."

"Dawn," she sighed, "I don't—"

"I want to stay with Jack," she snapped with finality. Buffy glanced over at him as he looked over at Dawn with surprise. She turned back to her sister to see that she was determined to have her way.

"Dawn," Jack caringly responded, "I think your sister knows what's best."

"Does she?" Dawn challenged in frustration as she turned back to her sister with a glare. "You ever think that maybe _I_ could help with the information? I mean, I was chased across town by these people, right?"

"I know," Buffy nodded with concern. "You've been through a terrible experience and that's—"

"I didn't ask for your sympathy," Dawn cut her off with strong reason in her voice. "I asked that you not treat me like a little kid… just this once."

Buffy stared at her blankly, still with strong reservations. She turned to Tara who gave her a shrug, then looked over at Jack with a hopeless expression. Jack tenderly replied, "It's, uh… usually customary to debrief everyone involved in an incident." He glanced over at Dawn, then back at Buffy. "I think she's… got a point."

"She _would_ be safe," Tara added in Dawn's defense. Buffy turned to her with an incredulous expression. "I mean, we'll all be there, so… what better place, right?"

"Canada," Buffy answered flatly. She turned to Dawn with a tired, frustrated look. "Fine," she sighed. "You're coming. Now let's go." She turned and marched out of the living room, grabbing her coat and walking out of the front door. Dawn turned back to Jack and Tara with an excited and grateful face.

_1:52:07 A.M. PST_

Buffy stood alone in the darkened and simple living room of Jack's downtown single-bedroom apartment. She gazed around at the simple, chipping linoleum flooring and the small television set against the wall with an old, overstuffed loveseat in front of it. Wallpaper was missing from some places on the wall and the dark curtains covering the single window, from a fashionably conscious point of view, were not terribly inviting either. Staring around at the apartment, it didn't really feel like home at all with nothing personal or special lying about. It was more like a hotel room, the owner of which having to wash away every part of his previous life before he entered.

With a creak of the floor below, Buffy swung her head towards the entrance of the bedroom and saw Jack emerge wearing a dark grey, short-sleeve collared shirt over a black T-shirt and dark blue jeans. Buffy turned away from him as he walked in, finding herself agreeing and distracted with his outfit in a non-platonic way. She cleared her throat with a half-smile on her shadowed face. "You, uh… clean up nicely."

Jack looked up at her with surprise, seeing her with her back towards him, which allowed him to crack a pleased smile with a self-satisfied feeling. It hadn't been so long that he didn't remember what it was like for a woman to say something flirtatious to him.

"Anything cleans up better than that uniform," Jack coolly responded.

"I'll say," she softly laughed with a slight smile as she turned around to him again. She noticed that he was pulling a screwdriver out of a toolbox tucked beside the couch.

"Follow me," he declared as he turned around and entered his bedroom again. Buffy glanced around at the living room once more before following him into the darkness of his room.

Jack flicked on the light switch and moved hastily to a vent on the wall. He kneeled down beside it and began to unscrew the screws one-by-one. In a matter of seconds, the vent cover was free as he removed it and pulled out a black gym bag, placing it on his small twin bed.

"I'm really not getting the feeling that's where you hide your stash of Butterfinger bars," Buffy frowned, staring down at it in confusion. He unzipped the bag to reveal a small survival pack of guns, ammunition, walkie-talkies, a separate tool kit, a global positioning system unit and a PDA-cell hybrid. Jack lifted up a pistol and placed a magazine cartridge inside, cocking it back like second-nature.

"But I _am_ getting the feeling that in the six months you've been dead our government's saved over a million dollars in ammunition," Buffy declared, stunned.

"That sounds about right," Jack nodded as he placed the gun in a holster on his belt. He lifted a smaller pistol out of the bag and kneeled down, placing it in the holster on his ankle beneath the right leg of his jeans. He retrieved a shotgun from the sack and inspected it for a few seconds, then held it out for Buffy.

"Uh…" she protested, holding up a hand as she stared at it as if it were an alien object. "Thanks, but… that's… not my style."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked with confusion. "I think you should take it."

"I've been fighting demons a little longer than you have," Buffy replied with playfully omniscient demeanor. Jack's shoulders dropped with the gun and a small scoff as he slumped incredulously. "And I can already tell you – that's not gonna work."

Jack lifted up the shotgun, cocking it and aiming over Buffy's right shoulder. She ducked and spun around, startled to see a beefy vampire standing in the doorway of the bedroom. Jack pulled the trigger and fired the shell, the shot exploding and dissipating at the vampire's neck, dusting him in seconds.

Buffy stared up at Jack as she came to a bewildered stand. He glanced over at her as she stared at him in confusion. "What?" he explained. "I've seen _Evil Dead_." Buffy stared back at the doorway in awe as Jack turned towards the pile of dust on the floor. "Wait a second, I thought you said that vampire's couldn't enter unless they were invi—"

"Who owns this apartment?" Buffy asked with worry.

Jack answered, "Uh… the landlord, technically, just for the first month until I can pay—"

"The landlord's dead," Buffy grimly declared. She reached to the back of her jeans and pulled a stake out of her waistband. "Time to put the Boomstick to use." Seconds later, two more vampires rushed through the door as Jack cocked the shotgun. One of the vamps immediately hit the floor before Jack fired and decapitated the other.

Buffy countered the second vamp as she spun around and roundhouse kicked it in the face, knocking him to the floor. Jack leapt over the downed vamp and rushed towards the living room where another was rushing in through the door.

Buffy grabbed the vampire on the floor and lifted him off of the ground, throwing him into a wall. The vampire blocked her next punch, then kneed her in the stomach, followed by a devastating back-fist punch which sent her rolling across the floor.

Jack used the butt of the gun to knock the vampire across the face and then used it to block one of the vamp's punches. Moments later, the vampire hooked him with a punch to the face, which felt like a sack of bricks and threw Jack to the ground. He hit the floor on his back and rolled out of the way of the vampire's heel slamming into the ground near his head.

Jack cocked the shotgun again and fired up at the vampire's head. He closed his eyes as a rain of dust fell upon him and two more vampires joined the fight, a female and a male rushing through the door in vampface.

Buffy rolled with a backwards somersault into a crouching position as she blocked a low kick from the vampire. She jumped up and side-kicked the vampire in the ribs, back-fisted him across the face, then spun around and drove her stake into his heart.

Jack came to his feet and aimed for the male vampire's head as the female raced around him and kicked him in the back. The barrel pointed downwards as the shot spread into the floor and the male vampire kicked Jack in the jaw. He flew backwards and landed on his spine, pain shooting through his ribcage as the air burst out of his lungs.

In a blink, the female vampire grabbed Jack by the throat and glared down into his eyes with sharp, hungry fangs. The male vampire was suddenly thrown against the wall by the Slayer, distracting the female. Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her off of him. The female leapt onto her feet and shoved Jack aside while she battled with Buffy.

The vampire woman landed three punches into her chest, and then spun around for a roundhouse kick. Buffy blocked the kick, shoving her foot back down, and then she hooked the vamp in the face, knocking her into a wall. Buffy lifted her stake up and drove it into the vampire's chest, dusting her within seconds.

The male vampire was already on his feet and rushing towards Buffy when the Slayer sensed his approach. She spun around as the vampire lifted his left leg and attempted to deliver a horrible kick to her head, but Jack appeared out of nowhere and caught his leg. With a slight yank and an atrocious crack, the vampire howled and toppled to the floor, his dislocated leg falling out of place behind him.

Buffy lifted her stake and was about to finish the job when Jack caught her hand. "No," he ordered. She turned to him in shock.

"What?"

"Don't kill him," Jack explained. They stared down at the downed, screaming vampire that tried to pull his thigh back in the socket of his pelvis. "He's not walking anywhere. We can interrogate him."

"Get information from _him_?" Buffy exclaimed in disbelief. "Look, these guys are demons. They take blood oaths and sacrificial vows to evil gods which they carry with them to _hell_. I don't think anyone can make them talk."

Jack glared down at the vampire coldly, feeling more like Federal Agent Jack Bauer than he had in months. "I can."

**  
1:59:58… **

1:59:59…

2:00:00


	8. 2:00 AM TO 3:00 AM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 2:00 A.M. AND 3:00 A.M.**

**2:00:00 A.M. PST**

Anya sat in the corner of her padded cell with her back firmly pressed up against the wall. Fatigue was weighing heavily on her, but she stared defiantly at the grimy glass wall straight ahead of her. The two vampire guards on the outside remained in their positions, with their hands behind their backs and their backs facing Anya as they guarded a door to the room outside of the cell. The tall figure from before entered the room as the door slid open for him and two other vampires he was with.

The former Vengeance demon hopped up and rushed to the glass wall. "Hey!" she shouted, from within the cell. "Hey! Old guy!" Merrick paused in his steps, turning his attention away from the guards and to her. "Yeah!" she yelled. "I'm talking to you!"

"There's no need to shout, my dear," he declared in a round, British accent which came through clearly on a speaker over Anya's head.

"Then hear this," Anya demanded with a quieter, yet threateningly serious tone. "Let me go right now."

"What makes you think I would do such a thing?" Merrick asked with a grin.

"Get me out of here," Anya spat. "I'm warning you!"

He was silent for a few moments as he studied her face with a tilted head. "Tell you what," he began, his round cheeks stretching with another smile. "I won't let you go, but I'll open the door and remove the only thing standing between you and _them_." Merrick glanced back briefly to the small gang of vampires that stared at her in vampface, smirking with fanged jaws. "How does that sound, eh?"

"They'll come looking for me," Anya retorted, her nerves chipping away at her boldness.

"The Slayer? Yes, of this I am certain."

"Not just Buffy," she shook her head. "Let's just say I've got an extended family you don't want to meet."

"Of whom do you speak?" Merrick asked with curiosity.

"Ever heard of D'Hoffryn?"

Merrick nodded his head with a thoughtful expression. "Vengeance demons."

"You bet your wrinkly ass," she sneered, having the upper edge once more.

After a moment or two, she actually considered the idea of D'Hoffryn, her demon 'father' of sorts, or the demon that gave her the powers of the Vengeance demon over one thousand years ago, teleporting in and rescuing her. Although unlikely in reality, she added as much hope and optimism to her defensive words as she could muster.

"Things… haven't exactly been… right as rain between us," Anya explained; D'Hoffryn was the one that took away her powers and rendered her mortal after all. "But that doesn't change who I was!"

"Who you still are," Merrick replied calmly, taking her by surprise. Anya gazed at him through the glass in confusion. "Once a demon, always a demon, Anyanka. You were one of the most vicious of them all." Her shoulders slumped as he stared at her with a growing smile and declared with a somewhat omniscient view of her life. "The blood of thousands stains your hands. Do you think that any one being can wash that away? It was demon blood that once ran through your veins; it is the same blood that exists in you. No… you are not fully demon, but you will never be fully human." His smile faded as he declared cruelly with a flat tone, "And that is why he will reject you."

Anya stared at him blankly, taken aghast. "What?" she breathed.

"You may have his heart, demon," Merrick warned, "but you will never have his trust."

Her stunned expression slowly melted away into a disturbed one. She was motionless and humiliated, either for acting like she believed what he was saying or actually believing it. There was nothing that she could think of to reply. There was nothing at all but the sudden random image of her sitting alone in her wedding gown, sobbing in the aisle of her wedding; Xander was nowhere in sight.

"Your blood is forever tainted," Merrick declared finally, "and so are you." She glanced up at him as he turned to walk away from her with a slight sound of pity in his voice as he apologetically added, "We cannot change who we are."

With that, he walked out of the room with his vampires in tow, leaving her alone in the darkness of her cell.

**2:07:30 A.M. PST**

Xander leaned against a wall in the back of the store, his blank gaze far-off and his mind deep in worried contemplation. The ringing of the bell broke his thoughts as Tara and Dawn entered the Magic Box first. "Merciful Zeus!" Xander exclaimed as he saw them. "I was beginning to worry—"

Buffy and Jack came through the door next, both carrying a shoulder of the bound, unconscious vampire they dragged into the store behind them. "And you brought friends…" Xander declared in confusion.

Willow walked into the back from the basement downstairs and was excited and relieved to see them as well. Before she could greet them as such she saw the vampire hostage and paused with confusion. "Buffy… James… what's going on?"

"Well, for starters," Buffy began with a sigh as she and Jack dragged the vampire through the shop. "His name's not James."

"What?" Xander exclaimed. He stared up at Jack with sudden suspicion, but then turned towards the door as he heard the floor creak. The final member of their group walked in – Spike, covered in bruises with a torn shirt under his leather duster. The world around Xander ceased as he glared at the blank-faced and weakened demon. "Son of a bitch—!" He lunged for him as Buffy snatched him back. Tara jumped in his path.

"Xander, just hold on!" she pleaded as Xander calmed himself and did not struggle against Buffy, who was holding onto both the vampire and her friend. "He's injured—"

"Oh," he calmly and rationally replied. "Then let's kill him."

Dawn stepped in to his defense. "Xander, listen, he's not the bad guy here! He helped me escape; he was working for us the whole time... You've got to believe me!"

"I don't need anybody's sodding explanations," Spike spat in disgust as he leaned against the doorframe, needing it to remain upright. "I don't have to answer to anybody 'round… here…" His words became shorter as the Scoobies watched him be overtaken by sudden dizziness.

"Spike?" Buffy replied in confusion as the vampire swayed in the doorway. His eyes rolled up in the back of his head as he fell unconsciously to the floor, his airless chest beginning to heave erratically.

"What's happening to him?" Dawn asked in shock.

"Dawn, Xander, get to the basement, find any chains and ropes you can," Buffy ordered, "and bring them back to me. Willow, Tara, move Spike down to the cot in the basement and help him while Jack and I secure the vamp in the training room."

Willow gazed at him blankly. "How? We don't know what's wrong—"

"I don't know," Buffy witheringly exclaimed, "just do _something_ to sedate him! We can't waste any more time – go now!"

**2:13:05 A.M. PST**

Buffy yanked on the thick chains wrapped tightly around the vampire as she and Jack circled their hostage in the darkness of the training room. Jack kneeled down and made sure the unconscious vampire's feet were tightly bound to the legs of the chair that he was chained to.

"All right," Buffy exhaled, standing up and brushing her hands off. "That should do it. He's not going anywhere."

Jack came to a stand and walked quickly to Giles' desk sitting in the corner near the door of the training room. Buffy crossed her arms and turned towards him curiously as he unzipped his black gym bag and shifted through the contents inside.

"I'm gonna need any tools… weapons – any sharp objects you can find," Jack began. "Anything extremely hot or cold. Holy water, I need that." An idea suddenly occurred to him and he glanced up at Buffy, "You wouldn't happen to have any towels, would you?"

"You're still planning to torture him," she said with a dark tone, shaking her head as if it were a childish act.

"I see you're good with context clues," Jack replied, looking down with a frustrated tone. She looked over at him with a slightly hurt expression, not expecting a response like that, but she quickly ignored it.

Buffy began to explain, "I was just saying that—"

"You were the one that told me all vampires were evil," Jack cut her off as he continued to sort through the bag.

"I never said that."

"And you sure seem to have a lot of sympathy for them."

"Nothing's black and white," she responded with a cold tone, offended. "There's a gray area to everything. I thought someone like you would understand that."

"I understand that sometimes you have to get your hands dirty," he snipped quickly. He lifted a hunting knife out of the bag and examined the sharp blade. He looked over at her, "You can't tell me that you've never used force on anyone to get vital information."

"Yeah, I have before," she sighed. "When I was young and in my Tarantino phase." She sighed and crossed her arms, rolling her eyes with frustration, "Things are different now."

"It's a necessary sacrifice," Jack explained matter-of-factly. "That never changes."

"But the sacrifice always does," Buffy exclaimed, "and my whole life was centered around it."

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her as she turned away, explaining, "First, you sacrifice your future to be the Slayer. Then you sacrifice your life to save the world. Then you sacrifice your boyfriend, your friends, innocent children… and before you know it, you've sacrificed everything you've ever believed in and fought for." His eyes fell to the ground with a heavy weight resting upon them as he thoughtfully considered her dark position.

"Sacrifice - I don't believe in that word anymore," Buffy stated with a withering tone. "Once upon a time it was used by real heroes with a real purpose… but now any time I hear it it's only used by people who only want instant justification for what they do wrong."

Jack continued to stare intently at the shadows resting on the floor, the moonlight from outside cutting through them in soft shapes and curves. The coldness of dark memories drifted into his mind as a chill ran through him as he replied, "'Fair is foul, and foul is fair.'"

Buffy turned to him with a blank, confused expression. "Huh?"

"_Macbeth_," Jack answered, staring down into the darkness. It was one of the few books his father had left him. He finally pulled his eyes off of the floor and stared up at her with the coldness that occupied before fully removed. "You're right in saying that there's a gray line," he said, barely over a whisper. "Nothing is what it seems."

Buffy gazed at him with a strange sense of déjà vu as he gave her an unbridled sense of cold reality, untainted by the past six months of her 'second chance at life' which had been destroying her.

"But with all honesty and respect, in the end it's not really about protecting those people," he continued. "It's about you protecting your innocence." She was taken aback for a moment, stunned to say the least. "Do you really think remaining neutral is going to solve any problems?" Her astonishment gradually turned to anger. "Sometimes you have to do what's wrong to make things right."

Buffy's green eyes flashed, deeply offended, "Where do you get off—?"

"I understand what it means to you," Jack calmly added, diffusing her impending explosion. "I _know_ why you want to hang onto the innocence so badly. But those lives that you care so much about – they're worth more than you, or me, or any one person. More than your innocence."

The realization came to her like a bolt of lighting through her body and stood her hair up on end. It felt as if she were having a conversation with her watcher once again.

It was same conversation, in fact, that she had with Giles the night she sacrificed her life and spared Dawn's. Giles had told her that if Glory began the spell to destroy the world, Dawn had to die. Buffy was firmly against it and had her fill of the 'sacrifice' crap. She would have let the world and everyone in it perish to protect her sister. So when the world began to unhinge – the apocalypse began – it was perhaps by fate, or a higher power, or pure fantastic luck that Buffy realized that she could take Dawn's place.

From the moment she was brought back, however, the Slayer wondered what life would be like if a situation so lucky had not occurred. If she had to sacrifice Dawn to save the world, would she? Could she?

She let out a long sigh, dourly pondering the possibility that what seemed like the wrong thing to do was the right thing after all.

"_Macbeth_ was a tragedy," she tiredly replied.

Jack looked away from Buffy, his green and blue eyes falling to the shadows again. "Yes," he whispered, nodding his head grimly. "Yes, it was."

**2:22:14 A.M. PST**

Buffy and Jack, carrying his bag, walked out of the training room where Dawn and Xander were waiting in the front of the store. "Are you two all right so far?" Buffy asked, getting something almost like nods from them. Jack glanced over to the phone on the wall as Tara and Willow walked in from the basement.

"We gave him something that should calm him down," Tara explained. "He's out, though."

"It's like he's fallen into some sort of coma," Willow replied.

"Any idea what's causing it?" Buffy asked.

"It looks like a reaction to some sort of chemical agent," Willow answered.

"What makes you think that?" asked Buffy.

"By looking at the bullet wounds," Willow explained. "There's a lot more bruising than usual, and they don't seem to be healing. But it's still too early to tell."

"We've done all we can right now," Tara added. "I'll go back in a few minutes to check on him."

"Good," Xander said, taking a breath. "Now. Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?" He looked over to see Jack unscrewing the cover of the telephone and opening it up, revealing a rope of wires. "And most importantly – who the hell are you?"

"I'm Jack Bauer," he explained while working away on the telephone. He pulled out a black electrical box from his bag as he diligently cut wires from the telephone. "I was a federal agent working with the Department of Defense and CTU-Los Angeles until one day six months ago."

Willow stepped over and curiously stared with wonder as Jack tied several wires together. "What's CTU?" she asked.

"Counter Terrorist Unit," Xander explained.

All of them glanced up at him with momentary confusion. Tara replied after a quick revelation, "Oh – more Halloween-night military training, right?"

"No," Xander replied with a slight blush. "I saw _The Punisher_."

"What happened six months ago?" Dawn asked.

"I was part of the operation to take down Habib Marwan," he answered, "the terrorist responsible for the nuclear reactor meltdown and the Air Force One crash that killed President Keeler." He swiftly began to attach wires from inside of his black box to the telephone without missing a beat of his story. "To get information, we had to go against procedure and detain someone on the Chinese embassy in Los Angeles, but we were unable to do so undetected. There was a shoot-out and the consul was killed accidentally. The Chinese government wanted somebody to prosecute, and the American government thought I was too much of a liability."

"You mean knowing secret spy stuff?" Dawn asked.

Jack glanced over at her as he taped the two devices together. "That's… _one_ way of putting it…" He looked back down and continued his story, "So instead of handing me over to face trial, somebody ordered my execution."

"Who?" Tara breathed, gripped by the dramatic tale.

"Somebody high up," Jack shrugged, with only vague ideas of who was responsible. "Someone in the White House." The Scoobies gave each other amazed looks as they turned back to see Jack finishing up the device upgrade, putting the phone back together. "I faked my own death and changed my name. Now I'm here."

"Here?" Xander scoffed. "Hate to break it to you, but your decision-making skills - at least when it comes to property values - kinda suck."

"And apparently, so does your timing," Willow added. "No offense, but your just happening to be here on the day everything does wrong... brings some suspicion to mind."

"Yeah," Xander replied as he leaned back against a wall and eyed Jack carefully, "is that a common occurrence?"

"You'd be surprised," Jack scoffed.

"Doubt it," Xander quipped. "Not my birthday."

"I know what you're thinking," Jack tried to reason with him, but couldn't very well shield the growing agitation in his voice. "I'd be thinking it too if I were in your position."

"I trust him, Xander," Buffy sighed.

He rolled his eyes. "_That_ comforts me."

Willow flashed her eyes over at him. "Xander!"

"Everything we thought we knew about today is turning out to be a bunch of lies!" Xander declared as he rose to a stand, pent-up anger releasing. He pointed to Jack, "How can we trust him?" He pointed to the telephone, "Or what Giles is saying…" With a calmer, but equally serious tone he gestured to the corpse resting in the basement, "I've still got no idea how we _ever_ trusted _him_…"

Tara put her hand to her head with exhaustion. "You guys, can we just calm down—?"

"We haven't got the time for this!" Jack shouted in agreement, his annoyance erupting.

"Spike was trying to help!" Dawn hissed at Xander. "He was being covert."

"He was trying to impress Buffy!" Xander shouted back.

"I get it!" Buffy replied angrily. "You've got problems. You're not the only one. But you _are_ the only one who's been acting like an ass! So why don't you get—"

Xander defended, "I'm trying to find Anya—"

"Shut up!" Willow barked, silencing everyone. "You guys like how that sounds?" The Scoobies and Jack turned to her with confusion. "We've been screaming orders at each other all night. I just thought hearing ourselves yell would make everything okay." Willow's dark eyes batted from face to face. "So does it? Are our problems solved now?" She saw nothing but silence and shame from all around. "Didn't think so."

After taking a deep breath, she continued with a calmer, quieter tone, "Before tonight we were all going through a lot of problems. They don't matter right now. Our friend is out there. We don't know where, but more importantly, we don't know why. For whatever reason, we've… we've all been so aggressive with each other, we haven't been thinking straight. We have to start now…"

Several seconds passed as they let her wise words sink in. Tara looked over at Willow with a sense of pride. It appeared as if Magick didn't destroy her after all.

"We need to figure out who's behind this," Xander declared with a much calmer tone than before. "We know that whoever it was had to have gotten to Sophie and the town vampires, but… that doesn't necessarily mean that it's isolated to the Hellmouth this time. Giles told us about Quinton Travers or… Roger Stanton – whatever his name is—"

"Wait, what did you say?" Jack asked, staring at Xander in confusion. He was stricken with a sudden irony – something too deep to be coincidental.

"Which part?" Xander replied, befuddled and disoriented.

"Roger Stanton."

"Former head of the National Security Agency, apparently," Buffy answered. "Meanwhile, his alter-ego Quinton Travers is current head of the Watcher's Council." She considered it momentarily. "Technically, he's not a head... more of an ass, really—"

"Oh, my god," Jack breathed, staring down at the space before him as his mind raced.

"What is it?" Dawn asked.

Jack responded, "I assumed Roger Stanton was prosecuted for treason."

"You know Travers?" Xander replied, stunned.

"I know Stanton," Jack answered. "What's the Watcher's Council?"

"A watcher:" Buffy defined, "a stuck-up, mostly British, total book-nerd type wearing tweed with no sense of humor and both fish-and-chips and a yen for destiny stuck up their ass." After a deep breath, Buffy added, "And rumor has it that this particular one has a talent for acting, too."

"Roger Stanton was an alias?" Jack declared with shock, shaking his head. "He even fooled President Palmer." He looked up at Buffy with a grave expression, "You don't just do that without help from the inside and some seriously deep ties."

"Like a government agency cover-up?" Willow asked.

"Exactly," Jack nodded.

Xander looked over to Jack. "I guess this is where you come in to help. Time to answer the eternal question:" He gestured to all the Scoobies, standing around, "Who are the Ghostbusters gonna call?"

Bauer looked over at the phone with a quick decision and picked up the receiver. He began to dial and heard at least three rings on the line before a weak, tired, grumpy female voice, the owner of which unknowing of the caller, answered in annoyance, "What do you _want_?"

"Don't hang up the phone, Chloe," Jack stated.

Chloe O'Brian's eyes widened sharply as she held the phone receiver to her ear. She was now wide awake.

**2:35:04 A.M. PST**

Anya stood in her cell completely alone and unwatched, her mind in deep contemplation for several minutes. The vampires that had been guarding her were sent away. They didn't even pay her enough worry to keep watch.  
Merrick's words kept replaying over and over again in her mind. "I'm not a demon," Anya whispered to herself. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her and her face was crumpled in a frown.

"I was…" she mumbled. "A pretty damn good one, but… D'Hoffryn took it away. There's no way that…" Was it possible that all this time she wasn't quite as human as she suspected?

She glanced up at the ceiling of her cell to see a small ventilation cover that gently blew cold air into the cell. Vengeance demons, like most demon species, had the gift of sensitive hearing. Inside of her heart, the belief and pride of being a Vengeance demon sparked once again. She stood taller and breathed deeper, with a sense of confidence in her eyes.

She stood up tall and cleared her senses, then closed her eyes and listened to the soft hum of the air. Soon enough, a small, low-pitched voice began to register. The sounds of Merrick's voice traveled with the air in the ventilation system to her ears, barely intelligible. She listened harder, trying to distinguish syllables and words.

**2:37:58 A.M. PST**

Dust thickly covered a conference room table that was surrounded by a plethora of different types of vampires. Both male and female, they were characterized by many differences – all of them unique from different backgrounds. Each of them had been a vampire for at least fifty years, while a handful of them had been demons for over 500.

The oldest of the vampires was a Russian female with long, dark red hair that wore a long, dark red overcoat. She was over 700 years old, but no one was absolutely sure just how old. Beneath her long suede jacket said to be stained red with the blood of her thousands of victims, she wore tight, revealing clothing – dark pants and a plunging neckline on her top with leather boots.

Her face was exquisite and near-perfect, with deep crimson lips that were permanently colored and piercing dark eyes. The face's one flaw was a long scar that ran from her right ear to the right corner of her mouth – earned from Janet Hayner, one of the six Slayers she had murdered. Although her face was beautiful, no one dared to look her in the eye.

The only true name that they knew had belonged to her was Vourdulak, while the name Larissa which she went by was said to have been adopted by her in the past century. She had a peculiar way of adopting the name of the last Slayer she defeated.

She was more dangerous and mesmerizing than anything most of them had ever seen. And Merrick thought she would want to be there personally for that night.

"My friends," Merrick declared with a smile, "for years we have planned this night. We have successfully put in motion our grand plan." His tone became a bit somber. "But we cannot deny that we have met certain obstacles."

He gazed down at the dirty, tiled floor. "Sophie and Eljiah were passionate, if nothing else. They tried to accomplish the more difficult parts of the plan. We have learned that they have both failed." A sound of hope filled his voice as he turned back to the eclectic gang of vampires. "That was what Sunnydale had to offer. But none of you are from here."

The volume of his words rose with passion and excitement. "You've been summoned from all over the world." He faced a young-looking, bald-headed Asian man in leather who stood in the corner with a twisted smile on his face. "Kwan Paik from Korea," he introduced. He was the head of a fierce gang in South Korea and in the three hundred years he had been a demon, he and his gang rivaled half of the death toll of all the wars fought on his homeland combined.

Merrick moved over and introduced a man covered in a black Jalabeyah robe with a V-neck that was embroidered with the symbols of the gods of the underworld which he still worshipped. "Ahmed Khalifa," Merrick grinned, "from Egypt."

"Valencia Cortez from Argentina," Merrick continued, pointing at a beautiful young Hispanic girl with blue eyes, brown skin and light brown hair. She, too, had another infamous name – "La niña del muerto." She appeared to be no more than fourteen, but had been a vicious vampire for roughly 450 years.

"And of course," Merrick said with a smile, turning towards Vourdulak, "Larissa."

After several moments of awe and pride, he addressed all of the fifty or so vampires. "You are all infamous in your lands. Tonight we will raise an army, and you will be it. You will have more power than you've ever dreamed. An unstoppable force. Invincible. Immortal."

"And who shall lead us?" Vourdulak asked with a smooth, soft voice with a thick Russian accent. "You?"

"It takes more than a man to lead such an army," Merrick responded. "It takes a legend." He grinned in deep contemplation beneath the brim of his hat. "It takes a Champion."

**2:42:39 A.M. PST**

The telephone blared inside a dark bedroom as a frustrated and groggy groan sounded out. A hand reached out of the thick blanket and fumbled across a nightstand until it reached the receiver of the ringing telephone. A handsome man in his thirties with short and thick, black, curly hair and dark stubble on his face pushed himself away from the bed with a sigh. He put the receiver to his ear and painfully sighed, "Yes?"

"Tony," a female voice nervously declared on the other end. "It's Chloe."

"Chloe?" former CTU-operative Tony Almeida exclaimed in frustration and confusion. "It's almost three in the morning!"

"I know what time it is!" Chloe snapped grumpily, not appreciating his tone.

"What is it?" Tony asked, rolling his dark and blurry eyes. His tone of voice stirred his wife, Michelle Dessler-Almeida, out of her sleep.

"I need your help," Chloe sighed.

Tony sat up in his place in their queen-sized bed, rubbing his forehead. "I'm not with CTU anymore."

Michelle, the lovely young woman in her thirties with rings of dark curls hanging around her alabaster face, stared at her husband with concern. "Tony, what's wrong?" she whispered with a tired voice. Both of them had worked at CTU through some of its darkest days, but since they had quit six months ago after the death of their dear friend Jack Bauer, they had the luxury of living a peaceful, unemployed, and normal life.

"I know that, too," Chloe responded to Tony's answer. "That's why I'm calling."

"What about?" Tony declared, urging her to tell him what kind of business she would have with them in the middle of an idle Tuesday night.

Chloe whispered as inconspicuously as possible, "It's the one thing we have in common that CTU doesn't know about."

Tony paused suddenly, his mind freezing and he instantly knew what the panic was over. He covered the mouthpiece of the receiver and turned to his anxiously curious wife and whispered simply, "It's Jack." Michelle's dark eyes went wide with shock. They had agreed to not make contact unless it was a genuine emergency when they brought him back to life and sent him away to life a new one.

"He needs help," Chloe explained as Tony and Michelle leaned in, both of them listening on the receiver. The computer analyst began to blurt out the pieces of the story rapidfire. "There was a big hostage situation and he grabbed a gun from one of the shooters. We linked the ID numbers to this abandoned military base called the Initiative, and I'm trying to get into the files but it's taking longer than I expected. Plus, he thinks he's uncovered some sort of conspiracy dealing with Roger Stanton and—"

"Whoa, Chloe!" Tony cut her off, bewildered with all of the information. "Slow down…"

"I don't have time!" Chloe snapped. "Now are you gonna help me or not?" Tony stared at the walls of his bedroom for several seconds as he put the phone down in his lap, contemplating the consequences of getting involved. There was always a chance their plot to save Jack Bauer could be discovered which would lead to their arrests, or even worse, their deaths.

"Tony," Michelle implored as she grasped his shoulder. He turned to her and saw her face of stern resolve and knew instantly from the seriousness in her eyes what had to be done. He stared deeply into her eyes, his fear for her safety and his fear for his best friend weighing down on his heart.

Nevertheless, Tony lifted the receiver to his ear and declared, "All right. Meet us here right away."

**2:48:11 A.M. PST**

Anya paced around the cell nervously, staring up at the ventilation cover overhead. She knew something was wrong – by demon instinct or by the fact that all talking in the other room had ceased. Her heart began to race and she knew that whatever they were planning for her was very nearly about to go down.

Behind her, the doors of her cell opened wide, the pressure releasing in the locks of the sliding doors. Anya jumped as she spun around and saw four beefy male vampires marching towards her in vampface. Merrick stood at the door of the room, watching intently.

"Stay away from me!" she shouted at them. They walked right into the cell and reached for her as she cowered back against the wall like a cornered animal. The demons harshly grabbed her and yanked her across the cell by her arms as she screamed and pulled away. They ended up dragging her out of the cell towards Merrick who was waiting pleasantly as he watched the scene.

"Only a fool would fight her destiny," he grinned. They pulled Anya out of the room as Merrick followed them, shouting, "Gather, all. It's time."

**2:51:59 A.M. PST**

Buffy, Willow and Xander stood in the back of the darkened training room, near Giles desk, Buffy leaning against the gymnastics horse in the middle of the room. The seiged vampire was chained and sitting in the chair at the other end of the room. He was now awake and unhappy to be there. Willow watched nervously with a stake in her hand while Xander kept a crossbow bolt firmly aimed at him.

Pacing between them was Jack as he rummaged through the gym bag on Giles' desk, glanced over at the vampire, then paced some more repeatedly for several minutes.

Buffy carefully watched the coldness of Agent Bauer through the interrogation. He never made eye-contact with the vampire; so much so that it was evident that he would only make eye-contact when he needed an answer. He treated the hostage as if he was expendable, but necessary only because he didn't want to go through the trouble of killing him. That would come later. The body language of Jack Bauer assured that to anyone being interrogated by him with striking volume.

Jack stopped finally at Giles' desk and glanced over at the vampire, making eye-contact. It was more than that, however. Jack stared at him in silence for several seconds – a cold, angry, chilling glare. The silence was only broken by a flat, calm and quiet demand. "What's your name?"

The vampire paused and glared up at Jack from beneath his brow with an incredulous expression. A smirk formed on his demonic face. "Tom," he answered simply.

The vampire wore a brown denim jacket over a black AC-DC shirt and destroyed jeans. He had blonde spiky hair and blue eyes and looked to be still in high school. He could've passed as one of Dawn's friends, which disturbed Buffy more than she cared to think about. The teenage vamp had a cocky look on his face and even though his leg had been dislocated about an hour before and was chained to a chair, he still found a way to be annoyingly bored and unimpressed with his situation.

"Do you have a last name, Tom?" Jack asked.

The vamp glanced up at him with a smile. "Sure. Cruise." The vamp grinned with satisfaction as Jack cracked a quarter of a smile as he nodded. "Is this the Interview?" asked the grinning vamp.

"That's funny," he blankly replied.

Tom Cruise shrugged humbly, "I'm a funny man."

"Oh, see, that's just the thing," Jack answered as he slowly strolled towards the chair. "You're not a man. You're a vampire." Jack stopped about seven feet from the vampire and stared at him closely. "How long you been around, Tom Cruise?"

The vampire glared at him in silence as the two of them remained in a motionless stalemate for several seconds. The Scoobies glanced back and forth between them, waiting for an explosion of violence and anger from either side. However, second after second passed, and they remained still as statues.

"Oh, come on!" Xander blurted under pressure. "We're not here to have a staring contest! Hit him with something!"

"Xander!" Willow snapped. "Shh!"

"I've been alive for eighteen years," Tom Cruise replied. "I've been dead for twenty-six."

"Wow," Jack said with a slightly impressed tone. "That would make you older than me."

"Well, that surprises _me_," said Tom Cruise as he stared up at Jack with a smirk. "But you're still not too old to put over my knee."

Jack glared down at him with an impassive face that would break the toughest of criminals. "How about I introduce myself? My name is Jack Bauer," he stated. He turned away and began to walk towards Giles' desk. "Part of me thinks you know already who I used to work for. About five years ago, I was working to find a microchip with information on it that would have averted a war with three Middle-Eastern countries caused by the attempted bombing of Los Angeles." He opened the gym bag and began to rummage through it again, carefully choosing an unseen item as the Scoobies and the hostage were curious of his actions, even though the vampire wouldn't show it . "I was captured by terrorists in the process. They stripped me, drained my stomach, hung me up and tortured me until my heart finally gave out."

Buffy glanced down at the ground with a grim expression, having pity and being grateful that at least she never experienced a trauma like that.

"You know the difference between you and me, Tom?" Jack declared as he stared down into the darkness of his bag.

"I look better naked?" he answered.

"You're already dead," Jack responded as he turned around and faced the vampire. He began to slowly walk towards him with a half-smile. "I'll _never_ have to worry about going to hard on you. Which makes my job… _so_ much easier." He lifted his closed fist and with a click, a long, sharp blade popped out. Jack stepped up to the vampire and leaned down, his face within a foot away from the demon's. "What are they planning at the Initiative?" Jack asked calmly, staring deeply into the vampire's yellow eyes. The vampire was motionless and quiet as he stared back in defiance. Xander and Willow glanced at each other nervously. Buffy watched intently with her arms crossed tightly.

Jack peered into the demon's stubborn face, and then replied with a hint of remorseful acceptance, "Okay." Jack took hilt of the switchblade and grabbed the closed fist of the vampire, touching the blade right below the knuckle of the smallest finger on the vampire's right hand. Before anyone knew it, Jack sliced the blade through the finger of the vampire with the ease of cutting a stalk of celery.

The vampire roared in horror and pain as the unattached finger fell to the ground, small amounts of blood falling down with it. Xander and Willow's stomachs heaved as they watched the vampire shout in terror and hatred. Jack stared at the nub on the hand of the vampire, then down at the finger on the floor. "You don't bleed as much as humans do," he observed, paying no attention to the pain of the vampire.

"I'll never tell you anything!" the vampire hissed through gritted teeth. "It's nothing."

"What's in the Initiative?" Jack asked calmly.

"I don't know!" the vampire shouted.

"You'd better figure it out, Tom Cruise," Jack declared, "or else you're gonna need some help opening your ketchup packages from now on."

"Go to hell!" Tom Cruise screamed.

Jack took the ring finger of his right hand and slowly sawed it off with the knife, slicing skin, muscle, tendon and bone one at a time. The Scoobies watched in horror as the vampire struggled against his restraints and howled in agony. Buffy swallowed hard as the vamp broke out into a fierce sweat and repeated with a heaving, airless chest, "I'm gonna kill you… I'm gonna kill you…"

"What are they planning in the Initiative?" Jack calmly asked. "Who's behind it?" he said with a bit more force as he reached for the vamp's middle finger.

"I've never seen him!" he screamed frantically. His torturer let his finger go and peered intensely into his face as the vampire struggled to explain, "I-I-I don't… don't know his name…"

"Is he human?" Willow asked fretfully, standing at a guarded distance away from the vampire. "Or a-a demon?"

"I don't know," Tom Cruise said with more anger. He spat, "I don't know! I don't know what he is!" Jack jabbed the knife swiftly into the left side of his torso between his ribs. "Ahhh!" the vamp groaned as he squeezed his eyes shut, beads of sweat dripping down his face.

"Think carefully," Jack calmly warned as he slowly twisted the knife to the right, shredding the flesh. The pain was so horrible that the vamp's face contorted and switched back to its human guise. Both Willow and Xander glanced at each other with worried, sickened expressions, deciding whether or not and when they should try to intervene. Buffy said nothing. She stood still and quiet, watching with wide eyes.

"I just…" the vamp heaved, as Jack ceased the twisting to let him speak, "I just know that nobody's… messin' around with him. Everybody in this town's afraid!"

"Where did he come from?" Buffy asked, as unruffled as Jack.

The vampire explained slowly, swallowing in between his words, "They say… that… he-he's been here… Wa-waiting…"

Buffy kept her soft eyes on his tearful, agonized face. "For what?"

"How should I know!" Tom Cruise screamed as tears rolled down his human cheeks. Jack quickly twisted the knife again, setting him back in his place. "Okay!" the vampire howled, as Jack pulled the knife out of his body. "Okay! Look!" The vamp regained his composure as best he could, and answered with a trembling voice, "This guy… he's – he's not like anything I've ever heard of. Nobody can figure him out… be-because he's not… he's not demon and he's not human. He's… some-something else… Something else…"

Jack glanced back at Buffy, Willow and Xander momentarily, catching their confused looks. He turned back to the prisoner. "The woman," he continued with a cold, demanding, yet calm voice. "Anya – where is she?"

Tom Cruise shook his head, staring down at the floor with wet eyes. "I don't know anything about that." Jack gripped the vampire's jaw strongly, the force of which nearly crushed the demon's bones. The vamp saw Jack's sharp knife headed towards his right eye and he could swear he felt his unbeating heart jolt. "No! No! No!" the vamp pleaded in terror. "It's the truth! I don't work there! I can't tell you where she is or what they want with her! I don't know!"

Xander stared closely at the vamp from his considerable distance. "Is he lying?"

"No," Jack answered flatly, glaring into the young, defenseless teenager's eyes. "He's too concerned with his looks to risk it." Bauer tilted his head slightly, while keeping his eyes firmly on the vampire's as he lowered the knife and released the demon's jaw. There was an almost kind softness in Jack's eyes which frightened the demon to the core. "What _were_ you assigned to do?"

Tom Cruise's eyes fell to the floor, then he picked them up as he glared at Buffy over Jack's shoulder. "Kill the Slayer." The vampire stared fiercely at Buffy, intending to terrify her. Instead, Buffy remained motionless with a stone face of resolve and her arms tightly crossed. Jack watched the prisoner with a clenched jaw as he squeezed his fists together on the arms of the chair.

"Why were you at my place?" Jack asked.

"That's where the device led us."

"What device?" he declared, agitated.

"There's a tracking device in the vampire's heart," Tom Cruise replied.

Willow turned to Buffy, then back to the vamp, "You mean Spike?"

"Elijah shot it into him," said Tom Cruise with a sniff as he attempted to regain his control on the situation. "Dumb blonde didn't even realize he had it in him." He glared at Jack firmly, "That's all I know. I'm not tellin' you another thing. Got nothing more to say."

Jack nodded peacefully. "Is that a fact?" he smoothly declared. He tightly gripped the hilt of the knife and stabbed it up behind the chin of the vamp, piercing Tom Cruise's mouth. Willow and Xander both jolted from the gruesome, sudden attack and couldn't believe their eyes or ears at the reaction of the crazed vamp. Buffy watched Jack with wide eyes as he suddenly erupted into a monster. "You _know_ what made him sick! Don't you?" With a booming voice, Jack shouted into the vampire's face as he ripped out the blade of the knife viciously, "Answer the question! Now!"

"It's a virus!" the vampire sobbed, blood pouring from his mouth and chin. "It's-it's made by the government! Some… some guy at the National Security Agency… gave it to the Initiative years ago!" He screamed with panic as sweat poured from his head, "X-815! It-it melts the organs of muscles of… of vampires. Turns them into jelly…"

"How do you know so much about it?" Jack asked with an angry tone.

"It's… it's the one thing they told us all about," Tom Cruise replied with bloody words. "If… if we screwed up… we were gonna a get a dose in-in the heart." His voice broke into a thousand pieces. "And they've… they have the only cure."

"Inside the Initiative," Buffy declared firmly.

"That's all I know, I swear…" the vamp cried. "I swear… that's everything…"

Jack stood up and stepped back away from his victim as he stared at him with almost glazed-over eyes. Blood dripped from both of his hands at his sides as he breathed slowly in silence. The young teenager was chained into the chair, covered and dripping in blood. A normal human being wouldn't be able to stand the sight of him – wouldn't be able to watch the blood or the sobs. Jack found himself not being able to turn away. Two storms were raging inside of him. One full of rage and fury for the demon-boy sitting in front of him and one full of the same kind of hatred for himself.

The dead silence was interrupted by the shrill ring of a telephone sitting on Giles' desk. Buffy, Willow, Xander and Jack all turned towards the phone, then glanced back at each other as Jack moved quickly, keeping his eyes on the hostage. He picked up the phone and answered with a demanding tone, "Hello." He stopped moving and listened curiously. "Who is this?" he demanded.

Buffy turned to Jack with confusion as he pulled the phone from his ear and handed it to Buffy with a baffled expression. "It's Anya."

**  
2:59:58… **

2:59:59…

3:00:00


	9. 3:00 AM TO 4:00 AM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 3:00 A.M. AND 4:00 A.M.**

**3:00:00 A.M. PST**

Buffy Summers marched through the door connecting the training room to the rest of the Magic Box where Tara and Dawn were sitting apprehensively as they glanced at their watches. As soon as the Slayer walked in, the apprehension reached a new level when they viewed her stern look. Jack, Xander and Willow rushed in after her, all with the same type of urgency in their steps.

Buffy moved to the phone, lifted the receiver and pressed 'speakerphone.' "This is Buffy Summers," she announced as she hung up the receiver.

Anya's voice came over loud and clear. "Buffy!"

"Anya, are you alright?" Buffy asked.

"I'm… I'm fine," she breathed in response. There was a distinct sound of fear and anxiety interred in her words. "Is-is Xander there?"

"I'm right here, Ahn," Xander blurted.

"I can't talk to him," Anya explained. "I can only talk to you… They… they won't let me."

"Who are they?" Buffy asked. "Where are you?"

"They're letting me make this call to… tell you that they want a trade." Buffy's eyes flew over to Jack's as they stared at each other with grim looks. Willow and Tara turned to each other with baffled expressions as well.

"A trade?" Buffy whispered to herself in confusion, staring down at the phone.

"They're going to let me go," Anya answered.

"For what?" Buffy asked.

Anya darkly replied with an apologetic tone, "You." Dawn instantly turned to Buffy, shaking her head 'no' decidedly. Buffy pulled her eyes off of the phone to see Dawn, then turned to Xander who had lost, sad eyes. Jack, Willow and Tara remained in their puzzled states. "I'm sorry, Buffy," Anya added. "It's what they want."

Buffy was silent for several seconds of deep contemplation. "What do they want?" she finally asked, causing Dawn more silent panic.

"You be here in an hour," Anya sighed, "…alone. And they'll let me go. I don't know what happens after that, I'm so sorry…"

"No," Jack declared, shaking his head with a firm scowl. "We're gonna need more than that."

"They're serious, Buffy," Anya exclaimed with a regretful tone. "The only way I'm going to leave is if you come for me." Her voice tightened after she swallowed hard, "They told me that if you're not here at 4:00… they're going to kill me." Xander looked up at Buffy with an alarmed expression. He pulled away from the phone and covered his face in his hands nervously. Buffy watched him as Anya added, "That's all they'd tell me, I swe—"

"I'll do it," Buffy cut her off with a voice of resolve.

"Buffy!" Dawn turned to her with a shocked, offended look.

"Where's the trade?" Buffy asked, hurdling herself down the snow-covered hill.

Jack held up his hands, shaking his head, "Wait a second—"

"_Where_, Anya?" Buffy demanded stubbornly with frustration.

"There's an alley behind the bank," Anya explained, "on Lancaster Square near the college."

"I know it," Buffy nodded.

She continued, "Crawl down into the sewers and walk north. You'll eventually come to a hatch door that's not supposed to be there. The combination is right 8, left 29, and right 88. Once you're inside, I'll be there."

Buffy stared ominously at the phone with a clenched jaw and eyes full of a looming doom. "So will I."

Anya whispered in reply with a voice of gratefulness, "Thank you." A few moments later, she followed it up with a tone of remorse, "I'm… so sorry." The line disconnected instantly, leaving nothing but a dial tone in its place. Buffy pressed the button which silence the tone.

"Are you out of your mind?" Dawn exclaimed in protest.

"Dawn," Buffy somberly pleaded, staring down at the phone, "please don't."

"You're just walk up to them and give yourself away!" Dawn sharply protested. "That's crazy!"

"I don't have any other choice," Buffy stated.

"What if they kill you?" her sister continued frantically. "And we don't even know what or who they are!"

"She's right," Jack answered with an agitated voice. "Something's not right. I mean, think about it. Why would a government facility have something as primitive as a combination lock separating itself from a sewer tunnel?"

"So we gang up," Xander declared, spinning around and facing the group. His face was deep in worry, torn between his friend and his fiancé once again. "We go together."

"You heard what she said," Buffy declared. "I'm going alone."

Willow breathed, "With sympathy for the major jam you're in, isn't that edging a little on… suicidal?"

Dawn begged angrily, "Buffy, you can't—"

"This is the way it's going to be," Buffy declared with determination.

Her sister spat in a furious sense of desperation, "You know just because you want to die as fast as you can doesn't mean you have to try so hard!"

"That's enough!" Buffy snapped. Dawn turned away and raced out of the room, running towards the basement and slamming the door behind her.

Jack matter-of-factly declared, his own frustration seeping into his voice. "You're being set up!" he pleaded. "Don't you see that?"

"Of course I do!" Buffy sighed. "There aren't any other options!"

He shouted, "Maybe that's because you're too caught up in yourself to consider any!"

Buffy spun around to face him with a glare. "The important thing is to get Anya back! And I can handle myself alone. I'm not a little girl."

"Then stop acting like one!" Jack roared. Buffy reeled back with burning anger as she stared at him, stunned. He froze in place, a horrible rage burning inside.

Slowly, he stepped back away from her, turned and marched out of the shop as well. Buffy, Willow, Tara and Xander stared at each other in silence.

**3:08:45 A.M. PST**

Tony Almeida, dressed in a white undershirt and dark green pajama pants, pulled open the kitchen door of his home. Michelle was behind him in a bathrobe pouring a pot of black coffee into three mugs.

"Were you followed?" Tony asked as Chloe O'Brian walked in, carrying a messenger bag on her shoulder.

"Jeez," she growled, "no! What do you think I am, stupid?"

Tony gave her an agitated look as his shoulders dropped. "Hi, Chloe," Michelle responded, giving her husband a glance.

"Hello, Michelle," Chloe answered, staring at her thankfully. "Thank you for greeting me." She stared at Tony with a displeased expression as she set her messenger bag on the counter of the dimly lit kitchen.

"What's the situation, Chloe?" Tony rolled his eyes.

"Jack's been living in a town called Sunnydale, two hours north of here under the name James Dawson," she explained as she pulled her laptop computer out of the bag and began to set it up. "Earlier tonight, there was a hostage situation which was contained, but that led to a kidnapping and a woman has been taken by same military people that tried to kill Jack in the hostage situation."

"Knowing Jack," Tony began, "this is about trying to get the woman back, right?'

"That's Jack for you," Chloe answered, turning the computer on.

"Should we assume that his identity's been compromised?" Michelle asked.

Chloe frowned, "Only to a few people so far, but Jack says they don't pose a significant threat."

"What's the status of the hostels in the hostage situation?" Tony asked.

"Dead," the computer-nerd answered.

"Damn," Tony shook his head with frustration.

"That's what I thought," Chloe responded with a baffled expression, "but Jack kept telling me that there was nothing to worry about… as if the police wouldn't ask any questions. He said there was no evidence that connects him to it and the bodies were gone."

"What?" Tony shook his head, puzzled.

Michelle asked, hanging Chloe a coffee mug, "Were they well-armed?"

"Extremely," said Chloe. "It's not unlikely that they're all government-issued."

"By this… Initiative base?" Tony asked.

"It's underneath the UC-Sunnydale campus," Chloe answered. "Part of some sort of covert sting operation into the activity of the town." She frowned even more than usual as she added, "Or at least that's what Jack's friend said."

Tony repeated, "Jack's friend?"

Chloe sighed with disappointment and suspicion as she mocked every syllable of her name. "Some chick named Buffy Summers."

"You don't trust her?" Tony asked, glancing at Michelle as they both picked up on the discomfort in her voice.

"Well, what kind of a name is Buffy anyway?" Chloe complained jealously with a sigh. Michelle and Tony looked back at each other again as the computer analyst continued, sitting down on a stool at the kitchen bar. "Sounds like one of those cheerleader blondes who are always quirky and… sociable." She huffed with disgust, having had too much awkward and possibly scarring experience with that kind at the public schools she had been to in her lifetime.

Tony sighed, rolling his eyes once more. "Okay… So what are our priorities here?"

"I suggest our main priority should be figuring out who's running the Initiative and what plans they have for Sunnydale," Michelle declared. It was evident that after running CTU through some of its toughest decisions, like her husband, she could at least still run the people standing in her kitchen.

"Uh," Chloe interrupted with an awkward, hesitant tone. "There's… another thing."

"What is it?" Tony asked.

Chloe didn't know where to begin. "Jack said… something about… vampires." Tony and Michelle turned to her as she added, "That they were behind this." The two of them blankly stared at her for several seconds of dead silence.

Michelle's eyes firmly placed on Chloe, she responded, "I'm going to do a background check on Buffy Summers. Check and see if any possible drug-related activity is attached to her name."

"Good call," said Tony, also still staring at Chloe incredulously. "I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear what Chloe just said and work with her on hacking into the Initiative." Michelle nodded and moved out of the kitchen to the personal computer in the office of the home.

**3:16:51 A.M. PST**

Buffy stood alone in one of the storage rooms beneath the Magic Box. The small room littered with crates and shelves was significant because it was where most of the weapons, including the heavy mystical artillery, were kept. There was also a set of iron bars lining one side of the room, where Giles kept several old gargoyle statues which Buffy didn't see the necessity of keeping behind bars.

The Slayer was outside of the cage with her foot on a crate as she lifted up her pant leg and placed a hunting knife into a sheath on her ankle. She heard a light scratch from behind her as she turned and saw Jack standing in the doorway with a meek expression.

"Bring me any Barbies to play with?" she scoffed, turning away from him. "I need some to go over my strategic assault." A frown was planted firmly on her face and he could feel the ice in her voice.

Jack replied, while staring at the ground and choosing his words carefully and calmly, "I overreacted earlier." Even through his calmness, his mounting frustration was still audible.

"No," Buffy cut him off sourly as she glanced back at him. "You stepped way out of line."

"I apologize for my choice of words," Jack answered, staring at her with a stubborn gaze, "but I won't change my opinion. What you're doing is ridiculous. It's practically a suicide mission."

Buffy haughtily announced, "A round of applause for Mr. Sacrifice, please—"

"Don't," Jack glared at her. Buffy silenced herself immediately.

They stared at each other for several moments, before she began again with a sobered demeanor. "I believe that I have a fighting chance," Buffy explained. "I also think that this is the only chance we've got. I'm not going to risk Anya's life by bringing us all out there."

"We don't even know their motives," Jack argued. "We're still not even sure who they are. Hasn't a Watcher ever told you the importance of knowing your enemy before you confront it?"

Buffy exclaimed witheringly, "We don't have any more time!"

"Buffy," Jack answered, with a more pleading tone, "you have to—"

"Jack…" Buffy whispered, cutting him off as she closed her eyes and shook her troubled head. A small sense of desperation could be heard in her voice. "I can't argue this anymore, just… please…" He stared at her for several moments as his face fell flat and he recoiled his opposition.

Buffy glanced down at the ground with heavy eyes as he stared at her with a sigh. "I can't convince you otherwise," Jack said, shaking his head with pity, "but at least take this." He stepped forward and handed her a black, metal canister. Buffy stared down at it, then glanced back up at him. He gazed at her compassionately and declared with a slight nod, "Be careful."

They stared at each other in silence, the Slayer clearly caught off guard. Jack pulled his hand away, leaving the canister in her hand, and quickly marched back towards the door. Buffy glanced down at the canister, then called out, "Jack!"  
He stopped and turned towards her, reading the deep gratitude in her green eyes. "Thank you," she smiled. A confused expression came over him as she explained, "For today." The two heroes stood miles apart, but were at once joined by something deeper than destiny and calling.

Jack gave her another rare smile, then walked out of the room and left Buffy to herself.

**3:22:19 A.M. PST**

Buffy arrived from the basement into the front store of the Magic Box with her favorite crossbow in her hands. She paused in the doorway to see Willow sitting on the floor with a book in her lap, Xander pacing nervously behind the counter, Jack standing beside the window as he cautiously gazed out, Tara carrying a thick blanket intended for the ailing Spike, and Dawn sitting against the wall with a pitiful expression.

"It's time," she told them as they stared in wary silence.

The Slayer glanced over at her little sister to see a cold expression on the young teenager's face. Dawn pushed herself off of the wall and up off the floor, storming out of the room in disgust. As the door to the store room slammed, Buffy heard the cracking of her heart. She stared down at the ground for several seconds as the rest of them watched her closely. With a deep breath, she raised her head with a nod.

"Tara, I'm handing Anya your cell phone," she continued. "Expect a call around four." Tara nodded with understanding as Buffy headed for the door.

"Buffy," Willow said as she came to a stand. She rushed over and threw her arms around her best friend. "Please, be careful."

Buffy hugged her tightly but stared down with a hidden expression of impending catastrophe. "I will." The two girls released each other as she glanced over at Xander.

"Thank you," he declared as he walked over and embraced her tightly as well. When he let go, Buffy and Jack made eye contact once more. The two of them shared a knowing look as she turned away and walked out of the store, the bell ringing as the door opened and closed.

They were silent for several moments as they stood in the store after she had left; the calm before the inevitable storm.

"I'm going to go check on Spike," Xander quickly declared as he headed for the basement and disappeared in a flash.

Jack moved away from the door and declared, "Someone needs to look in on Dawn."

"I'll do that," Tara offered.

"I'm going to check on our guest," Jack stated as he walked to the training room.

Willow sat back down on the floor, all alone, with an unconfident expression. "I'll keep reading."

**3:43:44 A.M. PST**

"I'm in," Chloe declared as she sat in front of her laptop computer at the kitchen bar of the Almeida home. Tony rushed up beside her, holding his Chicago Cubs mug full of black coffee. Both of them stared at the screen as schematics of the underground Initiative base dating back to 1999 appeared. Tons more information was available to them, but most of it was conflicting.

"What?" Chloe declared, gazing at the screen.

"It says that the base is currently inhabitable," Tony said, shaking his head. "It was sealed with concrete in 2000." He glanced over at Chloe. "How could anybody be working out of there?"

"Maybe it was never sealed like it was supposed to be," Chloe concluded, gazing at another file as she accessed it. "This says that some sort of non-profit organization approached the government and asked to take possession of the base, even before it was ordered to be shut down."

"That's impossible," Tony scoffed. "What organization?"

"It's not clear," she shook her head. Her eyes froze on a familiar name. "Quinton Travers," Chloe exclaimed. "That's the guy Jack thinks somehow is behind this. He was the one who was posing as Stanton."

Tony was firm in his disbelief. "There's something wrong with this – the government's not just gonna give up a military base, even if it is inactive. Especially if it was sensitive." He straightened out in front of the laptop as he crossed his arms tightly. "The only way something like that could ever happen is if somebody had some real power."

"Wolfram & Hart," Chloe declared as she read from the computer screen.

"Who?" Tony blurted.

She explained, "An international law firm. They represented Quinton Travers in the case brought before the head of the National Security Agency at the time…" Chloe and Tony glanced at each other immediately.

"Roger Stanton," they declared simultaneously.

"Oh, my god," Tony breathed. "This is unbelievable." Both of their heads turned away from the computer screen to the kitchen doorway as Michelle rushed in from the office, a worried look on her face.

"Guys," she breathed, "you've got to come see this."

**3:49:04 A.M. PST**

Willow sat on the ground of the front store with another thick reference book in her lap. Her face was full of aggravation and defeat as the non-English words on the page blurred together and her head throbbed incessantly. With a sigh of frustration, she slammed the book closed and held her aching head. She did not even notice the shadow that fell upon her face.

"Hey…" Tara declared, standing over her. "What's wrong?" Willow opened her eyes and gazed up at Tara with a surprised expression.

"Tara," she declared as she pushed herself to her feet. "I'm… I'm sorry." She sighed, "It's just…" Her temper and tone flashed with irritation as she exclaimed, "I can't take this anymore." Tara stared at her, baffled, as she began to pace back and forth. "Anya is-is in danger, and… Buffy could be killed! We don't even know who's doing all this! Not a demon, not a human – I don't understand what that means!"

"I get it, Will," Tara proclaimed with sympathy and understanding, silencing her. "It's hard when you can't use magic… when there's not an easy solution."

Willow shook her head in burning frustration, "It's… weakness!"

"It's human," Tara corrected. Willow gazed over at her, her anger dissipating. "People die," she said. "Disasters happen. But you can't control those things. We were never meant to."

As Willow continued to stare at her, she could feel a sting in her eyes. "It's so hard," she whispered, shaking her head as tears began to fall down her cheeks, "being so… useless. I never wanted to feel this way ever again. I'm powerless to do anything to save the people I love—"

"Willow," Tara shook her head seriously, as she reached over and grabbed her arm, "you're anything but powerless." Willow glanced over at her again as Tara declared with deepest conviction, "And you were _never_ useless. You're capable of more than you could possibly imagine if you'd only find it in yourself." Tara stared at the red-haired young woman for several moments of contemplation before she added, "And you will." Willow looked at her with a puzzled expression as she explained, "You found it in me once."

**3:53:32 A.M. PST**

Buffy held a steel finger on the trigger of her crossbow at the ready as she stepped down the dark sewer tunnel, her boots sloshing faintly in the disgusting water. There was no necessity for stealth – they had her exactly where they wanted her.

The tunnel in which she was making her way down led into a concrete room in which six other tunnels connected. In one of the tunnels, there was a fast-moving industrial fan that blocked out the whole tunnel, blowing air which carried a sickening smell through her senses. She stared straight ahead and saw a circular hatch door made of steel standing in front of one of the tunnels, a combination lock in the dead center.

She stepped towards the center of the room, preparing for what was coming. In seconds, her predictions were assured, when seven vampires leapt out for attack. The majority of them were common vampires with bad form, dressed in army fatigues. However, there was one that she noted instantly wearing a long, black robe. He stepped back and watched the other six vampires take on the Slayer.

Buffy back-kicked one of the vampires with enough force to crack several ribs. The demon rolled back on the ground, holding his stomach in agony and he lay helpless on the floor. The Slayer shot off her first arrow, catching one of the vampires in front of her in the heart and bringing him to his demise. She felt a sharp kick down her spine as she fell to the ground, dropping her crossbow.

With a roll and a flip, she was back up on her feet as she blocked the punches and kicks of two vampires, one male and one female, in front of her at the same time. She knocked away the attempted punches and side-kicked the male vamp in the face, then spun around and backhanded the female.

The vampire woman hissed and hooked Buffy in the face, burying her knee in the Slayer's stomach. Buffy elbowed the demon in the mouth, then was grabbed from behin by another male vampire. She grabbed the vampire by the back of the neck and flipped him over her, landing on top of the female. As the third vampire came up from behind, she retrieved a stake and slammed it into his heart.

Buffy rolled across the floor, picking her crossbow back up and fired another bolt through the heart of one of the male vampires and into the heart of the female vampire behind him.

Both of them exploded into dust as the Slayer blocked a kick from another vampire. She jabbed him twice in the chest and then buried a left hook into his jaw. He recoiled immediately and kneed her in the ribs, picking her up and throwing her into the cement wall.

She lifted the crossbow up and aimed at the vampire, firing an arrow that flew directly into his hands. Buffy's eyes widened. "Oh, boy," she sighed as he snapped the arrow in his fingers. She leapt onto her feet as the vampire rushed her and she grabbed the vampire around his neck, tossing him aside into the moving blades of the industrial fan. With a roar, the demon was sliced into a column of moving dust which was blown back into the room.

Buffy paused and turned around, facing the black-robed Egyptian vampire and the still groaning vampire on the floor. "My name is Ahmed Khalifa," the thick-accented vampire declared. He pulled a wooden spike out of his robe and drove it down into the heart of the injured failure, killing him. "Tonight is your last," he added with certainty.

"Let's make it good," Buffy smiled. The two of them erupted into a frenzy of blows and blocks, but Khalifa was much faster and more agile than she had assumed. His attacks became too fast for her and she was knocked to the ground. He stomped his bare foot into her stomach, knocking the air out of her body. Buffy caught sight of a fast moving shadow as Khalifa exploded into dust, the blade of an axe slicing through his neck.

Buffy covered her fast as the dust fell around her. She opened her eyes and stared up at Xander, standing over her with a battle axe in hand. She gazed at him in bewildered silence, "What the—?"

Before she could finish, she felt a sharp pain in her neck that shot down her chest. Buffy reached up and grabbed a dart sticking out of her throat. Xander stared down at it in horror as he turned to see a wash of vampire soldiers flood the room from every open tunnel.

"Run…" she breathed as Buffy fell out of consciousness. Xander felt several hands grab him and rip him away from her, dragging the young man across the floor. He watched as they scooped Buffy up and dragged in an opposite direction. Xander looked up as the circular hatch door opened up, revealing another team of vampire soldiers with Merrick standing in front of them.

"Right on time," Merrick grinned. "Separate them."

"No!" Xander shouted as the vamp soldiers dragged her viciously into the circular hatch before they placed a black bag over his head. "No!" he yelled, his voice muffled by the back. "Buffy!"

**3:58:24 A.M. PST**

Jack lifted the receiver of the telephone in the training room as he glanced over at the nearly-unconscious vamp hostage still in his place against the wall. He put the receiver to his ear. "Anya?"

"Jack, it's Tony," he declared. "We've found some information."

"Tony, it'll have to wait," Jack responded. "We're expecting a call any minute."

Tony sighed, "It's probably best if it didn't wait." Jack froze as he noticed the darker tone in his voice. He gave another glance over to the vampire hostage as he continued, "Chloe and I opened the Initiative files and found out why it was shut down. A group of civilians led an attack that ended in the deaths of a lot of soldiers. It was a group, but Buffy Summers is the only name listed."

Jack shook his head in confusion. "Could be a cover story," Jack said. "I know this girl, Tony. There's no reason she would kill a bunch of people unless they were doing something to harm others."

"How well do you know her?" Tony asked.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Michelle found something else I think you should know." Tony shook his head, rubbing his hand back through his thick black hair with a tired sigh. "Buffy has a record that goes back years, beginning when she was fifteen. She was investigated for the murder of your father."

Jack looked up, dumbfounded and confused. "That's impossible," he declared in disbelief.

"Not your stepfather, Jack," Tony sorrowfully explained. "Merrick Jamison-Smyth. You're real father." At the sound of the name, Jack felt a lightning bolt of terror and rage slice through him as he gripped the receiver until it crumbled in his hand.

**3:59:38 A.M. PST**

Xander felt a shot of pain go through his back as he was tossed through the air and thrown onto a cement floor. His hands free, he instantly moved to remove the black hood over his head in enough time to catch a glimpse of a giant metal door slamming shut. "No!" Xander barked, scrambling to his feet. He grabbed the handle-less door and began to beat fiercely on it.

"Buffy!" he shouted. "Buffy! Can you hear me! Let me out! Leave her alone!" Xander kept burying his fists angrily into the metal door until he drew blood, so much fury and dread in every hit. Had he given Buffy away? Had he sealed Anya's fate? He had to get out to save them.

Every muscle in his body froze with as a horrid roar filled the room. Xander spun around, his back against the door and saw nothing but pitch darkness all around him. His hair stood up on end as he could hear the fierce panting of a beast nearby. He became suddenly aware that he had to get out of the room – to save himself.

**  
3:59:58… **

3:59:59…

4:00:00


	10. 4:00 AM TO 5:00 AM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 4:00 A.M. AND 5:00 A.M.**

4:00:00 A.M. PST

Xander stood wide-eyed in the middle of the nearly pitch dark room. Fear overcame him immediately as he heard the harsh, inhuman panting of the unseen creature crawling around on the other side of the room. He could barely see what was separating him from the enemy across the room, but he figured they were rows of shelves.

His eyes found a metal door shrouded in darkness – the only one that was possible to see through the shadows. The breathing of the creature grew louder and closer, as if the monster could smell his growing terror.

There was no assurance that the door on the other side would be unlocked, but it appeared to be his only chance. The mysterious monster, which sounded gigantic, would find him in just a few seconds.

Xander eyed the metal door across the room through the shelves. It was a straight-shot – twenty-five yards at the most. He would have to run faster than he ever had in his life, pushing every muscle in his body harder than ever before.

In a fury of fear and adrenaline, he broke away into a mad sprint across the room, racing down the aisle. He could practically smell the breath of the beast hot on his feet as he rushed to the metal door. He imagined himself bursting through the door, home-run-sliding across the ground, then slamming the door into the skull of the monster behind him.

Xander raced straight into the closed door, jamming his shoulder and bouncing off onto the ground in less than a second.

"Dammit!" he hissed, holding his injured shoulder as he scrambled to his feet. He turned and glanced behind him to see a large, shadowy figure rushing down the aisle on all fours towards him. Xander reached up for the door handle and threw himself through the doorway, shoving the door closed behind him.

The door jolted as the beast rammed into the steel door, denting it. Terrified, Xander sat with his back against the door, his heart racing in his chest.

**4:04:37 A.M.**

Jack marched into the front store where Tara and Willow were both sitting on the floor with a book between them. Willow looked at Tara with a smile on her face, nodding in agreement with Tara as she told a brief side joke.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Jack declared coldly. Willow and Tara looked up at him, blindsided.

"Uh…" Tara began, glancing down at the piles of books around them. "Well, we-we were just lo-looking at—"

"What are you _supposed_ to be doing?" he cut her off.

"Jack," Willow declared, shocked, "what's the problem?" Willow gazed at him in confusion as she noted his appearance had slightly changed.

"The problem?" he repeated in disgust. "Where the hell have _you_ been for the past few hours?"

"Jack… you're…. you're sweating," Tara declared. His face was beaded with sweat as it had been for several minutes. He could feel the muscles in his neck beginning to cramp and his shortness of breath from earlier in the evening was slowing coming back.

"There's no time for that," he spat in reply. "You two need to be doing something useful and tell me what you've been keeping from me."

Willow and Tara glanced at each other as Willow said with confusion, "Keeping from you? What?"

"The Initiative," Jack snapped. "Why haven't you told me what Buffy did to it?"

Tara shook her head, "I don't understand—"

"Don't play stupid with me!" he shouted.

"Hey!" Willow snapped back in defense. "Don't talk that way to her."

"The Initiative," he raised his voice again. "What happened to it? What was it?"

"The government built it at first to capture and study demon life in Sunnydale," Willow answered. "But then this woman who was running it – Maggie Walsh – she came up with a better idea of how to deal with it. They built a new entity that was part demon, part human and part machine called 314. Or… Adam, Maggie called it."

"Why did Buffy destroy the Initiative?" Jack demanded.

"She had to," Willow defended. "And… she kinda didn't. It destroyed itself. Adam came alive and let all the demons run free and they destroyed the Initiative. Buffy was just there to save our friend and stop 314 from escaping."

"Buffy didn't destroy anything," Tara declared.

"You should've told me this before," Jack answered as he began to pace around the store, fuming with anger.

Willow shrugged, "We didn't think it mattered—"

"Well, you were wrong!" Jack barked, startling both of the women. "Why don't you fix this mess and get me all of the information you have on the Initiative!" Willow and Tara stood there in disbelief as he spun around towards them, his multi-colored eyes flashing, "Get out!"

Tara and Willow glanced at each other in astonishment, both of them disturbed. They turned with angry faces and rushed out of the Magic Box, neither of them bothering to stand up to him out of a strange kind of fear. Jack watched them run off in amazement of himself. He stepped back in horror.

"Are you doing this because of Buffy?" he heard a soft voice declare from behind him. He turned around with a startled expression, staring at Dawn who stood in the doorway with a stunned face.

"Dawn…" he whispered, but was silenced, unaware of what to say.

"It's not your fault she left," Dawn answered, with a sound of encouragement. Her face fell flat as her tone turned to disapproval, "But it's not _their_ fault either." She turned away and walked back towards the basement. "Maybe you need some rest. You _do_ look sick," she declared as she walked out of the room, leaving him alone.

**4:11:02 A.M.**

"Buffy!" Anya screamed. She rushed up to the door of her new glass cell as four vampires dragged the Slayer across the ground. Anya began to beat furiously on the glass, but Buffy was unconscious and helpless. "Let her go! Let her go!" Anya demanded with an enraged scream.

Merrick strolled into the dark room after the vampires. "Silence!" he shouted at her. Anya glanced over as she saw them drag Buffy's body into a new cell across from hers and throw her in.

"Seal the vents," Merrick ordered. "Kill them both."

"Wait!" Anya cried as the vampires stomped out of the glass cell and the doors slid closed, the air being sealed inside. "I thought you said you needed us!"

"Incorrect, Anyanka," Merrick said, pausing for a moment to glance back at her. "You're no longer necessary." He glared at her coldly, then turned around and marched away. Anya stood in her cell in horror as the vampires left her behind. The outside doors slammed shut and Anya looked over to see Buffy on the ground of her own cell.

**4:18:53 A.M.**

A shadow crossed over Spike's pale white face as he lay in a cot in the basement. Jack watched him with growing concern as the vampire's vital signs went from dead to worse. He shook his head with a shred of remorse.

"Gettin' weak in the knees, are you?" Spike declared in a weak voice. Sweat beaded his face as dark circles formed around his sunken-in eyes. Shivers went through his body repeatedly as the vampire tried to stay strong and still through them.

"I was just checking on you," Jack answered as he crossed his arms. In his hand was a small napkin that he had been using to wipe the sweat from his face. His stomach had been churning slowly for the past ten minutes. He ignored his own discomfort presently as he said to Spike, "You're doing well."

"Buffy… g-gone?" he stuttered.

"She told me to tell you to hang in there," Jack nodded. He took another deep breath; those which he had been taking had been getting shorter. "She'll make it out of this in no time with the antidote. Just hold on until she gets back."

A smile curled Spike's lips. "She say all that?"

"Yeah," Jack shrugged. The smile widened even further on the vampire's face as he closed his eyes tightly, pain gnawing at his limbs.

"You suck for a liar, y'know," Spike grinned bitterly. "She's not thinkin' about any antidote." A few moments of silence passed as he declared with mixed emotions, "This is the end for me."

Jack stared at the ground. "You don't know that for sure."

"Do me a favor, secret agent man," Spike slowly said with half a smile. "I haven't got much time. Maybe a couple of hours. I can feel it. You kn-know it." He held his tongue for a few seconds and regained control of his muscles as best he could. "I'm not goin' out tied to a bed in a basement…" he grunted in soreness. "I… always pictured the sun takin' me out. Fire runnin' me through, burning me alive. Kinda poetic."

Jack glanced over at him as he pictured each of his words. "Make you a deal," Spike declared, having more trouble than before with his speech. "When the sun comes – I want to see it. One last time." His eyes opened and gazed up at Jack. With a considerate nod, Bauer agreed.

Seconds later, another episode took control of his body as he began to jolt lightly in his near-comatose state. Jack watched with no control of the situation, unsure of what to do. Spike's hands gripped the sides of the cots as he exclaimed through gritted teeth, "Got – got to kill him, Buffy… K-kill… Elijah…"

Jack looked away with pity, but a thought came into his head. He stared into the darkness of the basement, his mind descending into contemplation.

**4:24:27 A.M. PST**

Jack marched into the training room with a deadly glare. Tom Cruise remained tied to a chair, covered in his _own_ blood for a change. The young vampire looked up and saw Bauer coming towards him and his unbeating heart shrieked inside him.

"I-I told you everything!" Tom shouted.

"Not everything," Jack hissed. He upper-cutted the young vampire, then wailed on him with four more punches to the face and head without warning and without reason.

"Please!" the vampire begged. "Please, stop! Please… What do you want from me? Anything!" Jack regained control of himself as he stepped back and stared at the sobbing teenage vampire, but that only made him fiercer and more determined. It only made him colder.

"I'm gonna ask you this once and once alone," Jack demanded. "The name of the vampire leader that was killed earlier tonight." He roared, "What is it?"

"Elijah!" the vamp screamed in horror.

"Elijah what?" Jack spat.

"Gaines," said the vampire, trembling with fear. "Elijah Gaines…" Jack stared at him, wide-eyed in silence. "It's the truth, I swear," the vamp cried. "I swear!"

**4:26:19 A.M. PST**

Merrick stood in the main conference room speaking with Kwan Paik as one of the vampire soldiers walked up to them. "Sir, we're ready," the vampire declared.

"Very well," said Merrick. "Release the Syntox."

"So soon?" Paik asked. "I was sure Vourdulak wanted—"

"She killed Ahmed," Merrick reminded him with anger. "She is a liability I won't have." He turned back to the vampire solider and gave the order. "Do it now."

**4:28:57 A.M. PST**

Buffy's eyes opened as she gazed up at the ceiling over her cell. Her head and body aching, she slowly sat up and peered around at her containment cell. The loudest, calmest silence of her life was roaring all around her, so much so that she almost wondered if she had gone deaf. She looked from left and right in her rectangular containment cell and saw Anya across the way through the grimy glass. Xander's fiancé was desperately banging her fists and palms of the glass walls of her containment cell, trying to get Buffy's attention, but no sound traveled through the soundproof glass of her cell.

Buffy shook her head in confusion as she stared at mute Anya, watching her try to mouth a word that looked like 'yeah' or 'hat.' _I'm not wearing a hat_, Buffy thought to herself, staring at the frantic woman on the other side of the room. "Man, I blow at this game," she whispered.

Suddenly, Buffy heard an abrupt sucking sound from overhead. She looked up fearfully as a nozzle was lowered out of the ceiling. The Slayer glanced over to Anya who stared upwards in her cell with a terrified expression. Buffy's eyes met the nozzle as a thick white gas began to seep from the top.

"Screw this," Buffy declared, then cupped her mouth. She glared at the glass door in front of her and lifted her boot, then slammed her foot through the wall, shattering it. Buffy was reintroduced to sound as a wave of wailing sirens went off all around and red lights began to flash in the room. She ran across the room to Anya's cell, jumped in mid-run and kicked through the wall, grabbing Anya by the wrist and sprinting off.

"Hold your breath!" the Slayer ordered as Anya willingly obeyed. The two women rushed to the sealed door of the room as Buffy slapped the button and the door slid open. Two vampires stood outside and turned around in shock. Buffy grabbed both by the collars and tossed them into the room behind them, then rushed out of the doorway and down the hall.

Anya and Buffy bolted down the hallway, running through every hatch door they could find as they pictured the toxic gas trailing them. Buffy glanced behind her to see that the gas was not on their tails. She pushed Anya into the closest room and took a deep breath, since they were both almost blue in the face.

Anya gasped for air as well as both of them balanced out their heartbeats. "We don't have…" Buffy said in between breaths, "a lot of time…"

"They'll be coming for us," Anya breathed. "Vam… vampires…"

"They're not gonna need the air," Buffy concluded. "We gotta move. They're going to try to seal us in." She took Anya by the arm as the two of them rushed off.

**4:32:12 A.M. PST**

"What the hell is happening?" Merrick demanded as he marched up to one of the vampire commanders just outside of the conference room.

"There was a breach in the containment room, sir," the commander replied, looking rather afraid. "We think the situation is under—"

"You _think_?" Merrick roared. "It's quite obvious that you _don't_ do much thinking! Seal off the east wing! Make sure no gas enters the medical unit!"

"But, sir, we don't need the air," he suggested. "If we let the gas reach the Slayer, she'll just die—"

"Did I ask what you needed?" Merrick hissed. "I want vampires blocking the east wing exit now! Seal them in!"

**4:34:38 A.M. PST**

Xander found himself standing inside of a control room with the beast beating and roaring on the other side of the steel door. He gazed back at the dented door, fearful that it would not hold, but a new threat brought him to his feet. All around, sirens were going off and lights were flashing – something was happening outside. Was it Buffy and Anya?

He gazed around for an exit, but there didn't seem to be one. The only way out was through the unseen beast. "Where's G.I. Jack when you need him?" Xander rolled his eyes.

However, they stopped on something sitting on the control panel of the dusty, abandoned control room: a telephone. A brash idea suddenly popped into his head. "Who are the Ghostbusters gonna call?" he repeated to himself.

**4:38:01 A.M. PST**

Buffy and Anya raced down the hallway following the posted signs all around. "There's an exit that comes up on the south side of the college," Buffy declared as she led the marathon run. As they turned a corner, both of them threw on the brakes and gazed forward at the army of vampires standing between them and the elevator exit.

The Slayer's eyes widened hopelessly as the team of two dozen vampires blocked the exit. Suddenly, a computerized voice announced over the P.A. system in the hallway as the metal blast door in front of the exit depressurized: "Shutdown engaged. Prepare for east wing air-lock."

Anya looked up at the ventilation shafts in the hallway and remembered the one in her cell. "Buffy," she cried in fear, "the gas will be here any second!" The Slayer stared at the vampires standing in her way as she felt the ground beneath her tremble; the steel door was about to close.

Buffy reached back into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out the black metal canister twice the size of her hand. She pulled the pin out of the top and threw it on the ground. The canister rolled to the vampires as they stared at it in confusion. Buffy reached over and covered Anya's eyes as she sealed her own shut.

With a beep, the canister rolled to a stop on the concrete floor and an explosion of bright, white light ripped out of the can and filled the room, burning the retinas of those staring at the canister. Vampires screamed out in pain and dropped to their knees as their eyes felt as if they'd been set on fire. Along with the light, the canister emitted an electromagnetic pulse that blew out all of the other lights in the room. The white light faded down and ceased, leaving the room pitch black.

Buffy and Anya kept their eyes shut as the light came forth again in a weaker form, this time in the form of a disorienting strobe. The steel blast door slowly began to descend amongst the chaos. Buffy grabbed Anya's arm, and while keeping her eyes shut, both moved through the maze of confused or injured vampires until they reached the exit and rolled under the door.

The girls rolled to a stop and found themselves in an elevator. Buffy came to her knees and mashed down on the button which sent them rocketing upwards towards freedom.

**4:44:16 A.M. PST**

Kwan Paik ran through the flurry of vampires running around through the Initiative. The military was alive and thriving with as much activity as a bustling beehive. "Merrick!" Paik shouted, approaching him in the conference room. "The Slayer and the ex-demon have escaped."

Merrick's eyes moved over calmly to Vourdulak, sitting at the conference table with a mischievous smile. Merrick met her eyes, then turned back to Paik at peace. "It doesn't matter," he declared with a smile. "It's too late. They'll never stop us now."

**4:48:28 A.M. PST**

Tony sat in front of his wife's personal computer in their office with the cordless phone up against his ear as he typed away at the keyboard. "Jack, I don't understand why this is so important right now," he sighed in confusion. "I mean, this case has been closed for years."

"I just want to make sure of something," Jack snapped with frustration. "Can you tell me what I need to know or not?"

"Just give me a second," Tony defended himself. "I'm working as fast as I can."

"Well, hurry up!"

Almeida bit his tongue and continued searching through the F.B.I.'s case files until he found what he was looking for. "All right, I got it."

"And?" Bauer impatiently retorted. He wiped the beaded sweat from his forehead and took deep breaths, wondering why there was no air conditioning inside of the building anymore.

"You're right," Tony answered, staring down at the family history of one of their former enemies. "Ira Gaines had a son named Elijah. He was murdered four years ago outside of L.A."

Jack's eyes were wide as he stared at the front store of the Magic Box with the phone to his ear. "He's back," he whispered with horror.

"Jack?" he could hear Tony say. "Jack, what's wrong? What are you saying? Jack?"

"Oh, my god," Jack breathed with bewilderment. "This is about me."

**4:51:45 A.M. PST**

Buffy and Anya were racing at full speed off of the quiet UC Sunnydale campus as Anya stumbled and came to a panting stop. "Come on!" Buffy shouted as she went back and grabbed her by the arm. "We've got to get back to the Magic Box!"

Anya picked up her aching legs and followed Buffy into the dark streets, glancing back momentarily at the campus behind her.

**4:53:22 A.M. PST**

Jack marched into the training room where the bloody vampire was sitting, chained to a chair. "What does this have to do with me?" Jack demanded. The vampire lifted his head and stared with wide eyes at the oncoming freight train of madness. Jack lifted the vampire up off of the floor by his bloody neck with one hand – chair and all – and threw him against the wall.

The chair was destroyed and the injured vampire sprawled out on the floor helplessly. Tom Cruise erupted into sobs. "Tell me!" Jack hollered. He lifted his foot and slammed it down on the vampire's face and chest repeatedly at least a half-dozen times. With the sanity of a rabid dog, he rained down fury and brutality on the beaten animal.

"Tell me what you know! Stop lying! Tell me the truth now!" Jack screamed as his face turned red and his heart raced inside of his chest. "What does this have to do with me!"

The vampire lay on the floor still and broken, staring up at Jack as he stepped back and glared down at the demon. "Everything," Jack heard him whisper.

"What?" Jack snapped. The vampire said nothing. Bauer picked him up and delivered another harsh blow to his face. "Answer me! What are you planning to do!"

The vampire burst into a fit of bloody laughter. Jack stared at him – the only time fear had set into him in a long while – as the young-looking chuckled with insanity. The vampire stared up at him defiantly with a twisted smile. "Don't you see, Jack?" he whispered, blood forming around his body. Nothing could hurt him now. "It's already happening."

Jack stared at him motionlessly, then glanced down at his right shoulder. It was seven hours ago, just before ten, when James and Buffy were making their valiant escape from the meat cellar in the Doublemeat Palace when he was shot with a dart – not a bullet. The horrifying realization came over him. The sweating, the heat, the agitation, the sickness, the pent-up rage, all made sense.

He had been poisoned.

Tom Cruise continued to laugh in victory. "It's been planned for years," the vampire giggled. "All of it… Quinton Travers… The Initiative…"

"My real father…" Jack said, in shock and horror.

"Just a pawn," the vampire explained. "Part of Travers' old plan. Merrick was Buffy's first watcher. Why? Because of you. It was always about _you_."

Jack stared down at his arm, feeling the sickness rising in his throat. The vampire mockingly laughed even more. "I can hear it, Jack," the vamp grinned. "I can hear your heart beating away inside your chest. It's fast." He glared at Jack bitterly as he spat, "It's inhuman."

"What…" Jack breathed as he stepped away, holding his throbbing shoulder. "What did you… what did you do to me…?"

"We made you stronger," the vampire answered as he sat himself up against the wall. "We gave you what you need to show the whole world what you always were." Jack looked down at the vampire's blood-stained smile. "Welcome to the other side, Bauer," Tom said. "Now you're a _real_ monster."

Jack stared at him in motionless silence for several moments and watched the vampire bellow. The laughing rose and fell, but Jack didn't move. Then, in an instant, Jack shot across the room, clutched the teenage vampire's head by his hair, and then ripped his skull from his neck with one vicious yank. The hair dissipated into dust which fell from his bloody hands and the vampire's body became a pile of dirt on the floor.

Jack stared down, in awe of himself and the horridness of what he had just done. _How'd I do that? How could anyone do that?_ The vampire was right. He had surpassed his humanity. The infection inside of him had been wearing away at his soul.

**4:55:09 A.M. PST**

Chloe sat at her laptop computer as her cell phone began to blare loudly. She reached over and grabbed it, answering the phone with confusion and annoyance. "O'Brian. What do you want?"

"For the love of god! Help me!" Xander shrieked, from the phone in the Initiative on the other end. Chloe pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it in confusion.

**4:55:49 A.M. PST**

Jack rushed out of the training room, holding his pounding chest and stumbled out into the front of the store. He collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. He could feel something taking over him, as if he were drowning in a vast ocean of rage and fire. Bauer tried to push himself off of the ground, his weak arms quivering under the weight of his upper body.

He lifted his head towards the window outside and saw a little girl with light brown hair and large blue eyes holding a doll close to her staring back at him through the glass. Her innocent eyes bore a hole straight through his soul, and he could swear he was staring at his little daughter.

His stomach heaved and he caught a gag in his mouth – if he could only reach her... he would rip her throat out.

"Jack?" he heard a soft voice from behind. He rolled onto his back and stared up at Dawn, who gazed down at him in panic. "Jack, what's wrong?" she exclaimed, distressed.

"Get away from me!" Jack shouted fearfully. "Please!"

"What's happening to you?"

"Kim, please…" His eyes began to burn as tears of terror formed. He felt his daughter's neck in his hands, his fingers slowly tightening around it. It was so fragile that it was liable to snap with just the slightest pinch. He squeezed his eyes shut as Dawn stepped closer to him.

"Stop!" Jack shouted, pulling himself away. His pain was so sharp that he wanted nothing but to inflict it on anyone and anything... starting with the Slayer's sister. "Stay… stay away!" Dawn froze in her steps and stared at him with wide eyes until a loud crash erupted from all around her. She looked up to see three vampires smash through the windows of the Magic Box.

She screamed and spun around, taking off into a run to the weapons closet. Jack looked over to see one of the vampires kneel down and aim a rifle at Dawn. "No!" he hollered, and then pushed himself up as the shot rang from the barrel. He lifted up and caught the bullet in his right arm and it sent him back onto the ground.

Dawn screamed in terror with wet eyes as she rushed over to Jack. She looked up to see more vampires rushing into the room as they grabbed her arms and ripped her away. Jack looked up and saw his daughter being dragged away from him, yet he was helpless to stop it. Lying on the ground, he reached out his bloody hand, his arm extending out to Dawn as they dragged her across the floor to the back of the store.

"Daddy," a small voice said. He turned around to see the little, pale-faced Hispanic girl standing over him with her rag doll in hand. He watched as the innocent face of the small child transformed into that of a vampire. He stared into the yellow eyes and sharp mouth of the demon with horror. "The Day is here, Daddy. The time has come."

"Jack!" he heard Dawn shout. "Jack, help me! Jack!" Bauer looked over to see one vampire holding Dawn's arms back as the teenage girl sobbed with fright. The other vampire lifted a pistol in front of her chest and fired once while staring at Jack tauntingly.

Dawn jolted backwards and fell to the ground as Jack screamed in agony, "No!" The world around him swiftly went dark as the other commando vampires placed a black bag over his head. Through the breaking of his heart, Jack felt a jolt of electricity shoot through his chest and at once he felt nothing at all.

**  
4:59:58… **

4:59:59…

5:00:00


	11. 5:00 AM TO 6:00 AM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 5:00 A.M. AND 6:00 A.M.**

5:00:00 A.M. PST

Xander was trying his best to stay calm inside of the control room. He grabbed an old, wireless headset covered in dust off of the darkened computer desk and blew off the dust. Placing the headphones on his head, he lowered the microphone in front of his face. "Okay…" he breathed nervously into the microphone piece. "Can you hear me now?"

Chloe, on the other end, sitting at her laptop in the Almeida kitchen, rolled her eyes with a scoff. "If I say yes, will you say 'good?'" she asked. "Because if you do, I'm hanging up."

"I'm definitely not in any position to be saying 'good,'" he declared.

Chloe shook her head in bafflement. "How did you get this number anyway?"

"It might be because my best friend's a hacker," Xander shrugged. "It might be because of my one-night stand of military training. Or hell, maybe I'm lucky that your standard government agency keeps their contact list as easy to read as a phonebook. Homeland security, my ass."

"Okay, what do you need, Xander?" Chloe sighed.

"I'm trapped in a control room inside the Initiative," he replied. "And there's some giant nasty slobbering all over the door outside. I'd go out there myself and… show him a thing or two about messing with a Sunnydale man… but… I, uh… pulled a muscle last week playing… um, croquet…"

"Save it," Chloe cut him off. "What do you want from _me_? I can't go down there and help you."

"Look, I heard Jack talking to you, all right," Xander pleaded. "You've got to have something on a computer that can get me out of here… or at least to a weapon. Maps, satellite imagery—"

"Satellite imagery won't work if you're underground," she declared as she rolled her eyes, shooting him down.

"Schematics!" Xander continued. "I don't even know what those are, but I'm sure you've got 'em, and I need help!"

"All right!" Chloe snapped. "Just keep your pants on! I can't work with people shouting at me!" At this point in the argument, Michelle walked into the kitchen with a curious expression planted on her face. She stared at Chloe with the cell phone on her shoulder and her hands sliding across the keyboard suspiciously.

Xander raised his voice, "I'm not shouting at you!"

"Yes, you are!" she complained. "You're exclaiming!"

"Then help me _without_ an exclamation point!"

"Fine!" she barked. "Can you at _least_ tell me something useful, like… where you are for example? It's not like you have a tracking device on you."

"If I knew where I was," Xander replied with frustration, "_why_ would I be calling you?"

"If you don't need my help, I'm going to hang up."

"No, no, no!" he pleaded. "Look, look, just hold up…" Xander's eyes darted around the dark room until they found a dirt-and-cobweb-covered sign posted on the wall. "Okay, okay, there's a sign that says Control Room N-19."

"The 'N' stands for 'north,'" Chloe explained as she gazed at a black-and-green blueprint of the base. "You're in the north wing right next to the medical unit." She stared closely at the screen and studied the lines of the drawing. "You should see a ventilation shaft overhead, climb into it and go left for about fifty meters. Check in when you come to an intersection."

Chloe put the phone on speakerphone, then on mute, and typed in the commands to access the rest of the ventilation tunnels of the entire base. "Who's that?" Michelle asked.

Chloe looked up at her with a shrug. "Just some idiot who got stuck in a control room with a demon blocking the exit."

Michelle stared at her incredulously. "Oh." Several moments passed by as she studied the frown-faced young blonde. "So… what do you think?"

The computer analyst stared at the screen, raising her eyebrows slightly as she shrugged her shoulders again. "Kinda cute."

**5:07:58 A.M. PST**

Buffy and Anya slowly jogged down the sidewalk of downtown Sunnydale just yards away from the sanctuary of the Magic Box. Buffy slowed a bit more as she stared at the broken windows with suspicion. "What the…?"

They looked back to see a silver Chrysler pull up to the curb in front of them and slow to a stop. Willow hopped out of the driver's seat as Tara crawled out of the passenger's side with stunned expressions.

"Buffy!" Willow exclaimed. "Anya! What happened!"

Buffy still had her eyes on the damaged front of the shop. "Was that there before?" she asked, her mind fixated on the broken windows.

Willow and Tara looked back at the shattered glass with confusion. "No…" Tara answered, shaking her head slowly.

Buffy rushed past her and burst through the open front door of the Magic Box to find it in a worse shape than it had been before. "Jack?" Buffy called out. "Dawn!" She ran to the center of the store, her eyes looking around as her heart beat nearly out of her chest. "Daw—"

Her eyes froze in horror as she saw her little sister lying on the ground covered in blood. "Dawn!" she shrieked. Anya, Willow and Tara rushed in to see Buffy race towards the teenager and drop to her knees in fright. "Dawn, Dawn… wake up…" She grabbed her sister's body and cradled it in her arms, hot tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh, my god," Willow breathed in horror. Tara and Anya stopped in their tracks and stared with awe and horror.

Buffy gazed down with wide eyes at the blood stain covering Dawn's left shoulder and then stared at her tear-soaked face. "Dawn, please," Buffy called out, her voice cracking with the weight of her sorrow and fear. "Please—" Instantaneously, Dawn gasped for air and let out a hard cough as she stirred. "Oh, god," Buffy breathed with joyous relief as she held her sister in her arms. She glanced up to see Tara standing over her, staring at Dawn's injuries.

"Dawn?" Buffy breathed. "Speak to me, please…"

The young girl continued to heave. "It… it hurts," she cried, tears welling up in her eyes again as Buffy held her shoulder-wound.

"I know," she tearfully answered. "I know, Dawnie, just… just be strong…"

"Jack," Dawn whispered. "They… they took Jack away…"

"Who?" Willow asked. "Who did this…?"

"Vampires," Dawn cringed as she tried to shift herself and sit up.

Buffy's hand smoothed her cheek. "No, no, slowly," she said. Fear gripped her words and clouded her mind – fear which was slowly turning into rage. "Just… just stay… stay still."

"It looks like they just hit the shoulder," Tara declared. "I can take her to the hospital. It'll be faster than an ambulance."

"I'm going with you," Buffy declared.

"Buffy," Dawn shook her head with alarm. "You can't… you've… They took Jack… He tried to save me. Something's… something's wrong with him—"

"Let's go now," Tara said as she reached down and helped Buffy stand Dawn up. The young teenager grimaced with pain as her burning shoulder throbbed and bled with fury.

Through gritted teeth, she continued her plea, "Buffy… please…" Dawn took a deep breath, "Please, listen to me. You have to find Jack. They-they took him…"

"All I care about is you," Buffy declared, shaking her head.

Dawn squeezed her eyes shut and continued, "I'll… I-I'll be fine. Really… you…"

Buffy sternly disagreed, "Dawn, no."

"Please," she answered with resolve, free of self-concern and fear. "You have to save him." Buffy stared down into her sister's eyes and saw more of a woman staring back at her than anyone she'd ever met.

"Dawn," her sister shook her head apologetically. "You're all I have—"

"You're all _he_ has," Dawn explained with a shaky, yet steady breath. "You have to let me go alone." Buffy stared at her silently for several long seconds. Her eyes shifted over to Tara who stood near Dawn for support in case she were to topple over, yet let her stand on her own because she was capable of doing so.

Buffy turned back to Dawn. "Go," she said. "Hurry." Willow handed Tara the keys to her car and joined Buffy at her side. With Tara's close guidance, Dawn turned away and the two of them walked out of the Magic Box towards the car out front.

They were in stunned silence as the three remaining women watched them go. "I-I don't understand," Anya dizzily began. "Dawn… She was here _alone_?"

"No," Willow turned to Buffy apologetically. "She was here with Jack, Xander and Spike. Jack sent us back to the house to find stuff on the Initiative. We… we wouldn't have left if we'd thought she was in any danger, I swear—"

"I know," Buffy replied. Suddenly, she froze as a horrifying thought came into her mind. "Xander," she repeated. "Xander was _here_?"

"Well," Willow shrugged, "yeah—"

"No, he wasn't," Buffy exclaimed with panic. "Oh, god, he followed me to the Initiative. They took him away right before they knocked me out."

"What?" Anya exclaimed with horror and disgust.

Willow shook her head. "No, that's not right. Xander said that he was going to check on Spike—" As soon as she said it, both Buffy and Anya looked over at her incredulously. Willow suddenly realized the error in her thinking. "Oh…" she realized, her eyes wide. "Dammit!"

"You _left_ Xander?" Anya exclaimed. "He could be dead! For all we know that gas gotten to him!"

"Maybe not," Buffy sternly replied.

Anya shook her head angrily, "But you don't know—"

"Here's what I _do_ know!" Buffy spun around and barked at her. "These animals came in and _shot_ my sister! A teenage girl! I'm not playing anymore games." Buffy marched over to the weapons cabinet and opened it up revealing an arsenal of axes and swords. "I'm going back to the Initiative to find Xander," she decreed with resolve. "And to save Jack." She picked up a battle axe and glared down at it. "And then I'm gonna kill them all."

She turned around and faced Willow and Anya. "They took Jack for a reason," she declared. "He's got more to do with this than any of us. Find out why."

**5:15:29 A.M. PST**

Xander crawled through the cramped, tight corridor of the ventilation shafts above the Initiative grounds. "I think this is a bad time to mention I'm kind of claustrophobic," Xander said to Chloe, who was on the other end of his wireless headset still.

"Shut up before somebody hears you," Chloe ordered.

Xander continued to crawl agitatedly as he whispered back, "I'll try to detect a slight sense of concern in that."

"Just keep moving," she sighed, unimpressed. "Turn right at the end of the shaft."

Xander came to the end of his tunnel and rounded a corner to turn left. His head rammed into a hard, metal plate. "Ow!" he hissed as he reached up and held his forehead.

"Shh!" Chloe declared. "Geez, they can hear you in San Diego!"

"I just hit my head!" Xander grumbled. "I think you got me lost in your computer world maze."

"What?" she said with confusion, staring at her blueprints.

"There's a metal plate blocking the left tunnel," Xander said with frustration. "Now what, Clu?"

Chloe thought to herself for a few moments, and then an idea popped into her head. "Did you hear any alarms or sirens go off while you were in there?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"It must be an air-seal," Chloe declared. "The east wing is closed off. There's probably poisonous gas on the other side of that metal plate."

"What?" Xander exclaimed, lifted up and banging his head on the top of the vent shaft. "Ooh!"

"God," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Are you _always_ this slow? Turn around. You'll have to go back the other way."

"Don't really think I'll be doing any turning," he complained, then slowly began to back-crawl through the path that he came. After almost a minute of backwards-crawling, he stopped, staring through a vent cover into a laboratory-type room. "Chloe, did you say I was in the medical unit? I think I see a chemical lab or something."

"So?"

Xander glanced down and stared through the thick shadows at his own hands as he refereed a wrestling match in his head. With a long sigh, he asked, "Can you tell me if there's an antidote of a virus named X-815?" He shook his head in disbelief of himself. "It's a pretty important thing – there's gotta be something about it in front of you."

Chloe was already at work scanning through files. "Yeah, the computer says it's in there, but we can only _assume_ that it's still there."

Xander rolled his eyes, still shaking his head. "All right. I'm going in."

"What?" Chloe exclaimed. "Is the idea of stealth completely lost on you?"

"If the virus is in there, the antivirus might be in there."

"What gives you _that_ idea?"

"_Resident Evil_," Xander snapped. "Now give me a break. I'm goin' down."

**5:19:48 A.M. PST**

Jack slowly opened his eyes and stared up at a rush of bright, white lights zipping by. He felt the rattling of the stretcher he was lying on, the wheels of which were speeding across the concrete floors of a hallway. With an oxygen mask blocking some of his view, his eyes rolled from side-to-side groggily as he tried to decipher his surroundings.

Immediately, the pain of his aching muscles began to come back to him. He felt his arms tremble and his stomach churn. Sweat continued to drip from his face and he struggled to catch his breath as the stretcher he laid back on flew down the hallway.

Jack's multicolored eyes glanced over at one of the faces of the four people shoving his stretcher. The twisted face of the vampire glanced down at him only momentarily, the yellow eyes of the male vampire having little concern for Jack. He glanced around at all of the blurry faces of the "doctors" around him and found that they were all vampires.

In a panic, Jack began to struggle but was met with much adversity. The vampires looked down at him as they continued down the hallway, but didn't have to move to restrain him. He was strapped down to the stretcher with what might as well have been concrete. He grunted and called out with livid fury, but his voice was muffled by the plastic oxygen mask. Agent Bauer was as helpless as a kitten.

Jack heard two doors depressurize and slide open as the stretcher came to a slow stop. He looked around and found himself in some sort of operating room, which only furthered his fear. Haplessly attempting to fight his kidnappers, he was lifted by the vampires off of the stretcher and placed on a steel operating table with steel bars that locked around the patient and held him steady. With the push of a button, Jack was trapped in the steel arms of the table as he shouted and spat at the demon doctors.

He noticed that his kidnappers were now paying him no attention as someone new entered the room. One of the female vampires reached over and removed Jack's oxygen mask and then retreated without delay. In fact, all of them stepped away and abandoned the scene immediately. Jack turned to the right and gazed motionlessly at the male figure standing against the wall.  
His face, his eyes, his cheeks, his mouth, even the way he casually, yet proudly stood – all strikingly familiar.

"Hello, son," Merrick smiled warmly. Jack gazed at his British-accented father with confusion and growing fear. He felt like a small child standing in the shadow of a monster. He stared at the face that he vaguely felt he could recognize, but saw a grim darkness and an appetite for destruction in his eyes where a man's soul should be.

Merrick shook his head as if he could read his thoughts. "You don't have to be afraid," he grinned. However, Jack for the first time in his life had every reason to be terrified. The two of them were silent in each other's presence for an eternity as Jack stared at the man he'd been wondering about all of his life.

After a while, Jack finally replied, "Merrick." Merrick gazed at him with a slight sense of puzzlement as he gently tilted his head to the side. Jack's gaze quickly transformed into a glare. "Are you him?"

"Your father?" Merrick clarified.

With the slightest of nods, his fear was melting into anger. "The man that abandoned me."

"Abandoned?" Merrick repeated, distraught. "Son, I was _murdered_. Murdered by that wretched girl whom you've grown so attached to in the past few hours." He stepped towards Jack with a caring tone and a loving face. "You've no idea how much I've wanted to—"

Jack shook his head. "You _left_ me. You left me alone…"

"You blame me for things that you do not understand," Merrick explained. "The darkness that you think you feel in your heart? The rage? The brutality… Do you think I _gave_ that to you?"

"I'm not like you."

"You have no idea what I am." Merrick gazed down at him with a growing smile as Jack looked away in distress. "Nor what you are," Merrick continued. "How can you walk amongst the men of this world and pretend you are one of them? You are not. You never were."

Jack breathed deeply, his heart pounding, "You don't know what you're talking about—"

"Have you ever wondered what makes you such a magnificent killer?" Merrick said bluntly as his son's heart skipped a beat. Jack gazed at him blankly, dumbfounded and disgusted. "It's because _that_ is what you are destined to be," he explained. "Not to hide among ants but to live as a god over them, for you _are_ superior."

He continued to shake his head in growing horror. "I'm not… a-a monster…"

Merrick gazed at him quietly as another smile formed on his face. "Do you know why I left you _Macbeth_?" Jack stared at him without an answer. "So that you would learn an important lesson in my absence," said Merrick. "A man can't change his fate. That is already decided by who we are, and we cannot change who we are."

A female vampire wearing a white lab coat walked into the operating room carrying a syringe filled with a compound containing Anya's blood. Jack stared at her with wide eyes as Merrick continued to explain, "The government that betrayed you also had a dream once… of creating the ultimate solider. Maggie Walsh's dream was to make that soldier from her own son."

The female vampire nurse walked over to Jack's extended arm as he tried to pull it away to no avail. The needle jabbed down into his artery as the vamp injected the chemical into his body.

"What she did not understand," Merrick declared with pride, "is that no matter how much power she gave to her son, he was destined to fail." He stared down at his son as Jack felt an immediate rush of fever come over him. "But this… This is _your_ destiny." Jack struggled to keep his eyes open as a wave of energy escaped from him as his body began to rebuild itself and regenerate into something new. With wide eyes, he gazed up at his father's face. "Don't fight it," Merrick whispered, shaking his head with a contented smirk.

**5:27:33 A.M. PST**

"Xander, what's taking so long?" Tony asked. He stood next to Michelle in the kitchen of his home with Chloe's cell phone against his ear. Chloe herself sat at her laptop typing away with her mind wrapped around a difficult task. "Do you have the antivirus or not?"

"I'm looking," Xander sighed as he stepped past the shelves of different vials that mostly looked all the same, reading each label before he moved onto the next. "Wait a second," he declared, staring at one skinny glass vial with a gold coloring to the transparent liquid inside. "What's the name of it again?" he asked with uncertainty.

Tony gave a worried, frustrated look to his wife, then answered, "DI 9FFTR731. Listen Xander, if you waste any more time you won't be able to get out."

"I found it," Xander replied, taking the glass vial off of the shelf and holding it safely in his hand.

Michelle shook her head. "Well, _that_ was nothing like a needle in a haystack."

"More like a needle in Texas," Tony sighed.

"I've got it!" Chloe announced. They turned to her as she explained, "I can triangulate his position in the Initiative tracking the frequency of the phone line. He's in the far east side of Chemical Lab 19." Tony put the phone on speakerphone again as Chloe ordered, "Xander, you need to exit the room through the door closest to you on your left to enter the hallway. Go north to the third door on the right and there should be a weapons cabinet in there."

"Copy," he answered. Chloe, Michelle and Tony watched the green dot on her computer screen which was Xander exit the lab and turn into the hallway.

Frustrated, Chloe snapped, "Your _other_ north!"

"Sorry," he whispered, then rushed in the right direction.

"How are we coming on the other?" Michelle asked.

Chloe announced, "I'm sending the information to Willow Rosenberg's laptop right now." With a few more button commands, the file was already being sent through the Internet. They suddenly heard an inhuman bellow shriek from the speakerphone.

"Xander, what was that?" Michelle asked, alarmed.

They heard the sound of a doorslam followed by the panting of a terrified human. Xander breathed hard, his heart racing, "I'm pretty sure my friend Cujo just found me."

"What?" Tony responded, giving both Chloe and Michelle a confused expression. Chloe pulled up another window, accessing the security cameras inside the Initiative and found the camera facing the outside of the security room that Xander was in. Their eyes went wide as they saw the four-legged, part-dog-part-lizard demon that stalked the outside of the door fericiously banging on the only thing between Xander and a bloody death.

"Oh my god," Michelle gasped as she stared at the creature. A stunned Tony glanced over at his wife momentarily, then placed his eyes back on the screen. Chloe continued to stare motionlessly with her mouth slightly agape, her frown disappearing into a look of awe.

"They knew," she whispered in shock. "The government _knew_."

Tony took his eyes off the screen with much difficulty. "It's right outside," he told Xander. "Get back into the air vents."

"I can't," he answered. "They're too small in here." Xander turned around and jumped as he saw the door jolt towards him for a moment, being hit with a force so powerful it seemed that the door would explode off. He turned away from the door and looked over at the steel cabinet against the wall. "Anybody know how to pick a lock?" he asked, swallowing hard.

**5:36:49 A.M. PST**

Spike's eyes opened slowly as dim light poured into his sockets. After a few moments of trying to adjust his eyes, he gazed around the dark basement around him, his head throbbing and found a figure standing over him. Buffy stared down at him with her arms wrapped around her, eyes red and face bruised.

"I'm…" he whispered softly. "Buffy… I'm…" She kneeled down beside the cot, putting her face closer to his.

"What is it?" she asked kindly.

With barely enough strength in him to form the three words, he breathed, "I'm… so… s-sorry…"

Buffy gazed at him as she felt a stinging in her eyes. They blurred over as she watched his weakened and fragile state and felt sorry for him if nothing else. She came to a stand, her own heart aching with guilt and remorse. "Trust me," she said with a grim and dark tone. "There's plenty of blame to go around."

They stared at each other for several seconds of silence before Willow's voice cut through it. "Buffy! Come quick!"

**5:39:13 A.M. PST**

"What have you got?" Buffy asked as she marched into the front store. Willow and Anya were at the front counter staring at Willow's open PowerBook computer.

"We recieved some important information from Chloe O'Brian that she found in the government's documents about the Initiative," Willow explained.

Buffy walked up behind the counter and glanced over at the screen. "Such as?"

"Adam was a project that the government had been planning for years," Willow began.

"It wasn't just Maggie Walsh's idea," Anya added. "Somebody high up came up with the idea in the early 1990s. They were supposed to make a super-solider army but needed a successful prototype to command it."

"And in the mid-90s when Maggie Walsh took over the project," Willow continued, "she put her own son as the frontrunner to be the government's Manchurian Candidate-solider."

Buffy shook her head in confusion. "Right, but what does this have to do with what's happening _now_?"

"Maggie essentially _took away_ the project from another group in the government who had their eyes on somebody of their own," Willow explained. "A man named Ryan Chappelle was the leader of the opposing group and one of the secret founders of the Initiative." Willow turned the computer around and revealed a picture of the balding, stern-looking caucasian man in an expensive suit with the words 'Regional Division Director of Los Angeles' Counter Terrorist Unit' next to the image. "He already had his eyes on a certain former Special OPS Marine."

"Jack," Buffy whispered in bewilderment.

"Chappelle gave Jack the job at CTU to monitor him and to see how easy he would be to brainwash and use," Willow continued. "And when Maggie stepped in Jack was put on hold, but not forever. The government always planned to use him even when the Initiative was out of commission, they just weren't sure when. But think about it – all the training he received, all the missions he was put on… He used to get away with a lot of stuff when he was at CTU. It's all because he was special. He was their perfect Terminator."

"A perfect killer," Buffy declared, staring at the screen where pictures of Jack Bauer sharing a happy moment appeared. He was with a thin, middle-aged woman with short brown curls and a teenage blonde girl inside of a living room of his Los Angeles home. The pictures were from far away, taken through a window, and it was obvious that the Bauers didn't know they were being watched.

"That's what this is now?" Buffy asked, clarifying. "Chappelle has Jack at the Initiative to make him into another Adam?"

"Chappelle's dead," Anya explained. "Apparently Jack killed him to keep his cover in the middle of a mission about two years ago."

Buffy stared down at the screen picture of Chappelle as a slight hint of relief came over her. "Not so unpoetic in terms of justice," she coldly responded. She was able to easily sympathize with having her life invaded and being used by a powerful organization for their own bidding.

"Unfortunately," Willow sighed, "if Chappelle's not behind this, we don't know who is."

"Doesn't really matter anymore," Buffy declared sternly. "Whoever's in there is going to die. They can't complete their mission without Jack. We stop them before the surgery, we win – they lose."

"It's not as simple as that," Anya responded. "Trust me, I'm just as eager as the next girl for you to demolish the people responsible for kidnapping me, but they're going to be well-guarded."

"I can get through them," Buffy answered.

Willow frowned, shaking her head. "You might not be able to get through Jack."

Buffy turned to her with confusion. "Come again?"

Anya and Willow glanced at each other with worried looks and Willow turned back to Buffy with a nervous expression. "Probably the first thing that they did to Jack once they got him to the Initiative is inject them with a compound – a preformance enhancer – made from the diluted blood of several demons and amped-up portions of Seratonin, Adrenaline and Noradrenaline."

"In other words," Anya explained, "they gave him a Rage Cocktail that'll increase his strength and endurance while making him into an unstoppable, psychopathic killing machine." She shrugged with a grim tone, "And who knew that an ex-Vengeance demon still has the perfect amount of demon blood left in her to complete their Red Bull on steroids?"

"How fast does the chemical go into effect?" Buffy asked, her eyes wide with worry.

"It's a drawn-out process," Willow answered. "We're thinking they somehow already gave him part of it earlier and injected the rest when he got to the base."

Anya added as she glanced at her watch, "That'll give you… a little more than an hour before Captain America goes American Psycho."

"Buffy," Willow breathed with concern, "Jack seems like a guy with a lot of will power, but… but if he goes… over the edge, we can't be sure he'll come back."

Buffy stared at her in silence, then glanced back down at Jack's picture on the screen. Holding his daughter in his arms and his wife by his side, he appeared to be more of a human being than most of the human monsters she had met in her life. He may very well be a monster now in this instant, but he was a man once – a man worth saving.

"If he's still in there, that's a decision he'll make on his own," Buffy said, looking back up at Willow. "But he deserves the chance." She glanced over at Anya, then back to her red-haired best friend. "We're almost out of time. I've got to leave now."

"I'm going with you," Willow declared. Before Buffy could protest she grabbed her laptop, "I found the lockdown codes from the discs we had back when we were trying to figure out what was in Room 314. While you're trying to find Jack and Xander, I can connect to the main computer system and seal the Initiative permanently. We'll just have to skedaddle before it seals us in too."

"Trust me," Buffy sighed as she mused over the daunting task ahead of her, "I'll be doing my share of skedaddling." She turned to Anya, "Stay here with Spike and wait for Tara's call. We'll be back."

"Done," Anya nodded nervously.

**5:46:29 A.M. PST**

The door leading to the security office jolted once more, the hinges nearly bursting under the pressure coming from outside. The beast slammed against the door again, this time breaking the top hinge. The canine-like monster stepped back, then rammed its horn-covered cranium into the metal door, ripping the other hinges and door handle like paper. The steel door creaked and fell flat to the ground.

Panting fericiously, the scaly beast stepped over the door into the room, grunting as every massive paw – each the size of a soccer ball – crushed the withered steel beneath them. Slime dripped from the jagged jaws of the beast as the yellow eyes moved from side-to-side, a great white scanning through the darkness for its prey.

Just as a shark finds its single drop of blood in the ocean, the human scent of the helpless man was instantly found by the ferocious beast. Like a lightning bolt, the monster dashed off, trotting like a racehorse, across the rows of lockers and weapons cages to the back corner of the room. The beast opened its jaws wide, wide enough to consume a large dog with one bite and snapped down on Xander's dark green overshirt. In moments, it was ripped to shreds, but the animal was confused as to why there was no blood or flesh involved. It was just a shirt.

Xander, squatting on top of one of the lockers with his head near the ceiling, had the monster in his eyesight. He aimed the M16 assualt rifle at the beast, nervous sweat pouring off of him. In a flash, the beast was turned around and glaring at him angrily. It was so fast, it startled Xander as the rifle slipped from his sweaty grip and fell to the floor below him.

He gazed down at the gun, wide-eyed, then back up at the hungry beast. "Dammit!" he grunted in a state of panic. He then jumped off of the lockers. As he was falling through the air he could hear the instantaneus sound of the monster rushing towards him. He hit the ground, rolled, scooped the rifle in his arms, sat upright and unleashed a blaze of bullets from the assault rifle. It took nearly the whole magazine cartridge before hearing a final yelp from the monster which toppled over on its side, mortally injured.

"Xander!" he heard Chloe's concerned shout from the earpiece. "Xander, what happened? Are you there?"

Xander came to a stand, staring down in disbelief at his ability to slay the beast, "I-I'm here." After several more moments of awe, a smile formed on his face, "Nighthawk has defeated the demon, over." He relished in his victory shortly before Chloe's confused tone snapped him out of it.

"_What_?" she declared in incredulousness.

"I mean, er," Xander stuttered, "it's dead."

"Somebody's got to have heard that, man," Tony warned. "It's best that you get out of there right now. They'll be coming."

"Believe me," Xander said as he turned, carrying his weapon and rushed out of the door of the security room and back into the hallway. "I'm already gone!"

**5:52:11 A.M. PST**

Tara Maclay sat in the ICU waiting room of Sunnydale Memorial Hospital with her face resting in her hands and her nerves racing. She looked at the analog clock on the badly-wallpapered wall with dismay… it was taking way too long. She glanced over to see a doctor enter the room with a grim expression.

He looked over in Tara's direction. "Are you with Ms. Dawn Summers?"

Tara stood up quickly with a wide-eyed face. "Y-yes, that's… that's me."

"Are you her mother?"

"No, I'm… I'm a family friend," Tara answered in a nervous stutter. "What's… what's going on? I-Is she gonna be okay?"

**5:56:34 A.M. PST**

Spike began another airless heave as Anya stood by his cot, watching in horror. He went into a violet convulsion before her eyes, thrashing and trembling beneath the covers. Anya covered her mouth in horror, not knowing at all what to do or how to help.

Her eyes shot around the room until she found a stake lying on the desk next to the cot. For several moments, she gazed at it in deep thought, weighing the options. Her eyes found Spike again as bloody foam began to drain from his mouth as he clentched his jaw together. Anya turned away from the sickening sight and grabbed the stake immediately.

She stared back down at the vampire with worry, then shoved the stake between his jaws so he would have something to bite down on during the seizure. Stepping away, Anya glanced down at her wristwatch. There wasn't much time left for him.

**5:59:32 A.M. PST**

Kim Bauer stood in the faint blue light shining through the glass wall of the Los Angeles CTU headquarters. Her long blonde locks framed her tear-stained face as she wrapped her arms around herself tightly, being the only one left alive to comfort her. She turned around and stared at her father in disbelief, betrayed horribly and heartbroken.

"How could you lie like this?" she cried with a soft whimper. "How could you do this to me?"

**5:59:43 A.M PST**

Jack's eyes opened wide as he stared up at the bright overhead lights of the operating room. His daughter's image flashed through his mind one last time and he was overcome with the worst guilt he had ever had. Hot tears formed in the eyes of his fevered face. He was strapped down to the metal table and awaiting the worst torture he had ever be subjected to.

_No_, he thought to himself. _Not the worst of my life._

They were going to change him and he wasn't sure that he would even be Jack Bauer in the next hour. In a way, he had got what he wished for. Maybe with luck, it would kill him for real and all of the pain would be over. But tonight he'd seen the undead walk the earth. They had the power. They would never let him go. Never let him rest.

The tears fell from his eyes and his vision of the world cleared. He saw a figure out of the corner of his eye. Jack glanced over and froze in awe and fear.

_The worst torture of my life. _

With a kind gentle smile upon her thin, rosy face, Teri Bauer gazed down at her husband.

**  
5:59:58… **

5:59:59…

6:00:00


	12. 6:00 AM TO 7:00 AM

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _24_ and all characters belong to Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, 20TH Century Fox Television, Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

**THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 6:00 A.M. AND 7:00 A.M.**

**EVENTS OCCUR IN REAL TIME.**

**6:00:00 A.M. PST**

Jack Bauer stared up at his deceased wife with confusion and horror. His heart told him to reach out for her and touch her one more time, for the last time he had done such a thing he was holding her cold, bloodied, lifeless body in his arms, sobbing with the anguish of his remorse for leading her into the web of deceit which consummated to her murder.

But now the young-looking woman with soft, alabaster skin; short, deep brown curls and big, sparkling eyes gazed down at him with a gentle expression. She was radiant in grace and glory – still wearing the clothes that he had last seen her in but they had been cleansed of her blood as he was cleansed of his sins and freed of the chains of his perpetual guilt.

Staring up at her motionlessly, a million words raced through his mind, but he could only form one in his lips. "Teri?" he declared with a mixture of awe and fear.

Lovingly, she beamed a warm smile that touched him like the sun's rays. "Jack."

Her voice rang within him and filled him with excitement and the astonished, triumphant joy of church bells. It was _her_ voice. "H-How?" he stuttered in shock. "You're… you're…"

"Don't be afraid," she comfortingly declared as she stepped closer to him. As if it were magic, his fear disappeared and he gazed up at her with wide eyes of wonder. "It doesn't matter how or why," Teri softly responded as if she were whispering the words of a bedtime story. "We're together again. Just like you always wanted. Just like you always dreamed."  
He was thrown even more off guard as he stared up at her with bewilderment. She tenderly nodded with reply, "Yes, I know. I know all of your dreams. All of your thoughts. I've watched you every moment since the last that we saw each other. You… Kim… I'm _always_ there for you. I'm _here_."

Jack's expression of wonder began to fade as he mulled over the deeds of his life. He swallowed hard. "I… I let you die…" Tears began to sting his eyes once more as she leaned in close to him – almost touching him, but never getting close enough.

"Shh…" she soothingly responded. "No more tears…"

He wouldn't let himself be forgiven, shaking his head in protest as he choked out sorrowful confessions. "I've… done… horrible things."

"_Horrible_?" Teri repeated with a significant tone of disbelief. A smile stretched across her face again. "My love," she breathed with enchantment, "you can't possibly imagine how proud I am of you." He stared at her with disbelief as she continued, "You're the greatest man that I ever knew. My death wasn't in vain. It brought you one step closer to becoming what you are… what you're about to be."

With a motherly tone, she tilted her head and stared down into his eyes, "Horrible? The people that _should_ be ashamed are the ones that abandoned you… betrayed you. They tried to kill you. All the things you've done for these people – this nation – you've given them everything. Sacrificed everything." With pity for his plight, Teri added, "You're their savior. Their champion."

She pulled away and began to pace around with a disgusted expression, fed-up with the injustice of the world. "But for what, Jack?" she sighed. "Fame? No. On the street you're treated like dirt… just like any other human being." She turned back to him inquisitively as he lay on the operating table staring up at her with humility. "Peace?" she asked. "No. Save the city from a nuclear bomb, a gang war will tear it apart the next day."

She crossed her arms as she stared deeply into his soul. "Love?" she stated. A small scoff came from her lips as she rolled her eyes, then stared at her husband with a caring smile. "No one has _ever_ loved you more than me. No one will." He stared up at her and understood what she meant as thoughts of his failed relationship with Audrey and his destroyed relationship with Kim flashed through his mind. "No one knows you like I do," Teri explained. "They look at you – they see just how different you are, how extraordinary… and it scares them. But _I_ look at you and I understand with perfect clarity _exactly_ what you are. You're more than a hero, Jack – more than a savior. You're a god among ants. You deserve much, _much_ more."

Jack closed his eyes for a moment, the fire of the chemical running through his veins, incinerating his strength. "I-I don't want anything…"

She couldn't help but smile, despite her position. "Humble, too," she declared. "But that's not the truth." She pleaded, "At least do what's right, Jack. Follow your destiny. For yourself… for me."

He opened his weak eyes and gazed up at her deliriously. "What… what do you want me to do?" he whispered.

Teri gazed at him for several moments, then leaned in close to his face with a kind smile. "Kill them," she whispered with a cold, wicked tone. "Kill them all."

Jack's calm expression melted into one of astonishment. "What?" he breathed in distress.

"Show them, Jack. Show them what it means to suffer."

Jack shook his head with growing fear. "I… I-I can't."

"C'mon, Jack!" she shouted with impatience. "Why do you fight? What for?"

"_Kill_ them?" he repeated in disbelief.

"Are you defending them?" she declared incredulously, raising her voice. Her anger was growing rapidly. "How? They exiled you!"

Both his strength and will power drained from him, but his morals and conscience which had provided him so much turmoil were still intact for now. Teri stared at him with eyes begging for vengeance, but it was too much. Every day of his life since she had died had been about vengeance. Tears stained his face as he shook his head. "I-I can't… Please don't ask me to do this…"

"Don't tell me you still believe in the Home of the Free and the Land of the Brave?" Teri laughed mockingly. Her rage flashed as her eyes grew cold. "They don't even know the _meaning_ of it!" she shouted. "They don't know tyranny; they don't know oppression!" Her voice lowered and calmed, but was thick with the venom of revenge. "They think they don't need you to save them anymore? To protect them?" She shook her head and smiled irately as she let out a laugh. "We'll show them that they do."

Jack gazed up at her in stunned silence, studying the vengeance in her eyes and the cruelty in her voice. The past memory of what Teri's smile _used_ to look like flashed in his mind like a photograph, every detail vividly burned into his memory.

"You're not her," he breathed with total understanding. Teri froze and stared down at him with surprise as he continued to study her. "You're not my wife," he declared simply.

Several seconds went by as Teri gazed down at him. Her expressionless face transformed and shifted – her lips curling into a sinful smile. "Of course not," she answered. "Why would she be with you again? Why for one _second_?"

Jack's emotions changed drastically. He was now in the company of a stranger with his wife's face. His heart beat with resentment but paused with terror as he stared up at the creature before him, glaring down at him with malice.

"You're wrong, Jack," the Beast stated. "You didn't let her die. You flat out killed her." His mouth dry as a stone, he swallowed hard as he gazed up at her helplessly. "She blames you, you know," his wife's form announced, pacing around the room. "The moment that bullet went through her gut she blamed you as if you'd pulled the trigger."

Jack squeezed his eyes shut to escape the images in his head, but could not escape the poison being poured into his ears.

"Spending hours searching L.A. for her missing daughter," the monster continued, relishing in his torture, "she blamed you. When she was kidnapped, she blamed you. When she was hunted down, beaten, held hostage, and raped... she blamed you."

The evil being turned around and gazed at Jack just as it blurted this revelation. It knew that Jack never found out that his wife had sacrificed herself to save her daughter's innocence. It could practically hear his heart shatter inside of his chest under the weight of his guilt. Bauer opened his eyes and gazed over at the image of his wife with a sickness and revulsion churning inside.

"You can't save your country from it's enemies," Teri's doppelganger declared, "because it _is_ it's _own_ worst enemy." His wife's eyes formed a cold glare. "You couldn't save your wife from your enemies because _you_ were the enemy."

Jack stared at her, his emotions gone and his heart crushed. The last bit of his will power snapped. "You're a failure as a hero, Jack. So why continue?" the evil being asked. "Why do you fight?" He gazed at her in silence until it was interrupted by the sounds of blaring sirens. The room was illuminated with flashing warning lights as the security alarms sounded.

**6:06:28 A.M. PST**

Willow closed up her laptop and pulled it off of the floor near the west entrance elevator, below Stanley Hall in UC Sunnydale. "All right," she declared. "The doors are open in the Initiative, except for the east wing, and whatever demons that are alive are loose."

"That'll keep them busy," Buffy agreed. "Just be careful – and if you see anything, run."

"I don't intend on sticking around to meet the locals," Willow said with a nervous frown. Buffy smashed the button on the elevator, pulling open the doors.

"You find Xander, I'll go get Jack," Buffy ordered as she raced off in one direction and Willow rushed down the hall in another.

**6:07:02 A.M. PST**

Kwan Paik ran across one of the artillery storage areas where a great number of vampires were rushing around, trying to arm themselves for the coming attack. In the distance, growls and roars of savage beasts that had been locked away all these years inside the hidden rooms of the Initiative – beasts that had been starved and abandoned from the first time Buffy's friends tried to shut down the Initiative. They were hunting for their survival, and were willing to take human and vampire alike.

He gazed up near the staircase to the second level and viewed Merrick, standing alone near the top of the stairwell, staring around with a satisfied look on his face. Kwan shook his head in confusion, positive that the old man, old whatever he was, had gone insane. "Merrick!" he called out as he rushed up the stairs.

Merrick barely paid attention to his own name. "Merrick," Kwan asked, "what is happening?"

Merrick stared around at the panicking vampires around him with a smile of contentment. "It's her," he whispered calmly. "She is here." A few feet away from them, leaning against the wall, Vourdulak stood with a pleasant expression of mischief. Merrick glanced back at her and she gently took her weight off of the wall and floated towards the exit of the room, avoiding all of the chaos like a goddess walking between raindrops.

**6:08:31 A.M. PST**

"It's her," the Beast with Teri's face declared. It stood with its arms crossed beside Jack's operating table. Jack was still bolted down to the cold, steel table with his strength drained, but inside he could feel a tempest of emotions brewing. On the outside, his skin was as cold as ice though sweat began to bead on his face. His breathing was short and irregular and his vision blurred from time to time, although being able to block out the sight of his wife controlled by some sort of evil being was a blessing.

"Our friendly neighborhood Slayer just showed up to save the day," said the Beast with a sneer. It glanced down at Jack mercilessly as it grinned in his agony. "You know what I think?" Teri-being smiled. "I think you've got a thing for her."

Jack's eyes opened as he glared up at the Beast. "Stop," he whispered harshly.

"Ooh, did I hit a nerve?" the Beast gleefully retorted, his wife's eyes expanding with pleasure. It began to sing mockingly, "Jack and Buf-fy sitting in a tree… K-I-L-L-I-N-G."

"Enough," Jack hissed. His weakness was disappearing as the hellfire inside began to boil his blood.

"Ah, don't be ashamed," Teri-being shrugged casually. "I mean, look at her. What's not to love? She's pretty, she's athletic, funny… Not too _smart_, though…" It turned towards Jack excitedly. "But hey – she's dangerous. Isn't that what turns you on?" Jack swallowed hard, his heart racing. The Beast strolled into the shadows as the alarms continued to blare with a constantly pulse. The room flashed red and yellow intermittently. Teri's voice changed into that of a familiar other as the Beast added, "Face it, Jack…"

Jack's eyes opened wide as he looked over at the figure emerging from the shadows, transformed from the angel of his deceased wife to the devil herself – Nina Myers. Her dark curly hair framed her bony face as her dark, piercing eyes gazed at him and burned through his broken heart, savoring in his agony. This was the woman he himself mercilessly murdered in retaliation for the merciless murder of his wife - the woman he had once had an affair with while he was seperated from Teri.

"You've always had a special place in your heart for killers," it grinned.

**6:11:18 A.M. PST**

Willow bolted down the flashing, narrow, grimy hallways of the Initiative with fear interred in her heart. Her laptop firmly tucked beneath her arm, she raced around with her eyes batting from side-to-side. In the distance she could hear the too-near growling of demons that she had set free with her expert hacking, but was beginning to seriously wish that she hadn't.

As she rounded a corner, she screamed as she crossed paths with a man and he spun around and aimed an M16 at her face. Willow squeezed her eyes shut and covered her face. "Halt!" he ordered.

She opened her eyes in shock. "Xander?" she exclaimed, staring at her friend wearing a white undershirt and blue jeans and holding the gun at the ready, with a headset on his head. It was like déjà vu and a page out of their unhappy Halloween history.

"Willow?" he said, recognizing her.

"Oh, thank god," she gasped with relief. "For a second there, I thought you had gone Rambo again."

"Great," he rolled his eyes.

Willow looked over at his headset as a panicked voice sprang from the ears, "Xander? Xander, who's there?"

"It's okay, it's Willow," Xander announced into the microphone. He then said to Willow, "Did you find Buffy? They took her away…"

"She made it out," Willow declared. "And they also took Jack here. They're going to chemically induce rage inside of him and make him into a homicidal killer, and then they're going to use him as they're new Terminator Adam. So we came back to find Jack and to shut down the Initiative for good."

"Okay," Xander nodded, and then paused, offended. "Wait – Buffy left _without_ me?" Rolling her eyes, she grabbed Xander by the arm and the two of them ran down the hallway together.

**6:14:45 A.M. PST**

Jack's fists were balled up tightly as he lay across the table, sweat dripping from his face. "Soon, Jack," Nina's voice declared to him as the doppelganger leaned close, "none of this will matter. _I'll_ be the only thing left."

Jack glared up at her with fury building. "I'll let you in on a little secret." Nina's smile stretched across the evil being's face. "I'm going to destroy everything. I'll find your friends… your family… Those sappy little love bunnies who helped you into this mess - I'll wring their necks. That little computer nerd with the big 'ol crush on her superhero Jack Bauer? I'll rip out her guts. The secret service won't be able to stop me when I slice open your Presidential pal." Those dark eyes burned into his face as it declared, "Your baby girl? Your little sweetheart? I'll finish her nice and slow."

Jack fiercely gazed at the monster standing over him as it beamed back. "As for Buffy?" it reminded him with a simple warning, "I'll make sure you two are together so you can watch her suffer. And Jack…" It smiled wide, staring deeply into his eyes. "I'll kill you _last_."

Nina's body stood nearby, watching him intently, waiting for some sort of response. There was none. Jack just stared up at her with a cold glare, the same that had been on his face for minutes. It straightened out and stared at him in confusion – it was as if he'd died and there was nothing but a body with an angry expression frozen on its face.

The truth was that he _had_ died. Jack Bauer was gone.

Jack squeezed his fists together and with a simple jerk the steel bars popped like rubber bands. He sat up straight, without bending his spine, then he hopped on his feet, the ground nearly breaking beneath him. The Beast stepped back in awe, watching the monster be born before its eyes, with a significant look of worry on its face.

**6:16:16 A.M. PST**

Kwan nearly stumbled as he felt the ground beneath him tremble. An explosion on the lower level rocked the floor above. Vampires around him scurried as he rushed out of the main artillery room and into the corridor. Camouflage-wearing vampires ran past him as he stopped in the doorway to a stairwell which led below. Burning vampires ran up the staircase and collapsed in front of Paik, bursting into ash.

Kwan pulled himself away and bolted down the corridor into the nearest control room, grabbing the neck of a young vampire like he were picking a puppy up off of the ground. "Get in there!" he ordered, throwing the young vamp soldier inside the control room. "What caused that explosion? Show me!"

The nervous, young vampire glanced back at the dust-covered monitors and turned back to Kwan with uncertainty. "Do it now!" Kwan roared, and the vamp snapped into action. He began to switch on the monitors. "I want to see the lower level," said Kwan. "What's happening down there?"

After almost a half a minute of the vampire stumbling around the controls clumsily, the black-and-white screens came on featuring the burning lower level. The damage was unimaginable as the cameras searched from room to room for any sign of life or un-life. Finally, the camera found a young man with dark hair carrying a gun and a red-haired woman with a laptop running out of the safety of a panic room-type shelter which could withstand a bomb and control the rest of the Initiative as well.

"Damn them!" Kwan hissed. "Why are the Slayer's friends alive?" he snapped at the vampire.

The nervous, young male vampire looked up at his commanding officer with wide, unsure eyes. "Should… should w-we send troops after them?"

"No," he bit off bitterly. "Kill the Slayer. I'll take care of them."

**6:19:56 A.M. PST**

Buffy was in the middle of one of the vehicle storage garages with a battle axe in her hand as she swung it wildly at the barrage of vampires coming at her from all corners. She roundhouse-kicked one vampire out of the way, then sliced its head off before moving to the next where she buried the axe in its chest. Ripping it out, she back-kicked a vampire away from her which approached her from behind.

Sweat covered her face as she spun around swiftly, the axe flashing in the light, and delivered death to everything coming near her.

**6:20:34 A.M. PST**

Jack marched down the hallway moving every muscle individually. His eyes were completely emotionless, though a hurricane of dark emotions tore his insides apart. He was reaching the end of the corridor in the medical wing and was headed for one of the main control rooms.

"Where are you going?" a small voice called from ahead. In front of him, little Valencia Cortez stood holding her doll in her arms. Her wavy light brown hair fell around her face as she stared at him with eyes of innocence, but an unbeating heart of malice. He seemed to pay no attention to her as he continued to walk down the hall in her direction. She didn't fret – she knew how to get his attention.

"Daddy, are you leaving me?" Her fragile tone sounded like the cry of an abandoned kitten. "Why are you leaving?" she asked with a baby's voice. Jack continued to walk in a straight line at an unbroken pace, as if he couldn't hear a word she was saying. His eyes never met hers as he stared ahead fiercely – like she was an invisible being that he would walk right through.

Her spoiled frustration grew as she glared at him. "Fine," she pouted. "If you're not going to play nice…" Valencia's face mutated into a vampire's guise as the small demon roared and hissed, revealing sharp jaws, bright yellow eyes and a reptilian brow.

Jack was unaware of her completely and continued his path.

Angrily, she roared again and charged at Jack. When she was just a few yards away, she leapt off of the ground and practically flew through the air towards him, her jaws open wide. Without a thought, Jack snatched her little body out of the air. The child vampire buried her fangs into his forearm, piercing the tattoo Ramon Salazar had given to him.

He never flinched. He never blinked. He never even glanced down at his attacker. He just grabbed the child's head, her silky hair running through his fingers, and smashed it in his bare hands until it burst like a grape. Blood and dust covered his palms and fingers as he continued to walk towards the main corridor.

Jack reached the double doors which had been locked to protect the remaining vampires inside from outside demon attack. Bauer grabbed the steel blast doors and ripped them off the hinges as if he were tearing a page out of a book. The fifty or so vampire soldiers inside who were given no warning turned towards the intruder and the mangled steel doors in horror.

Panicking, they rushed Jack in attempts stop him. One-by-one, he discarded each of them in a merciless slaughter.

**6:22:51 A.M. PST**

Buffy killed the last vampire in sight and turned around to leave, taking off down a corridor before being stopped by a voice from behind. "Buffy Summers," a woman called with a thick Russian accent. Buffy turned around to see the beautiful yet threatening pale woman with long red hair standing behind him.

"What an interesting name," the Russian vampire declared. "I'll make it my own."

Buffy gave her an unimpressed look as she glanced the leather-wearing woman over once. "First," Buffy quipped, "you might want to work on making that outfit. Gotta tell you – the _Matrix_/Superhero look is out."

"I'll tear you apart," Vourdulak threatened with a grin.

Buffy glowered at her with a menacing tone, "Show me what you got, Natasha."

**6:24:10 A.M. PST**

Xander stood nearby in a control room as Willow sat at the computer desk with her laptop hooked into the mainframe. "C'mon, Will," Xander nervously pleaded as he held his gun close, aimed at the door. "What's taking so long?"

"Give me a break," she spat. "I don't think anyone's ever done this before… _ever_."

"Well, could you do it a little faster?" Xander asked, deeply worried, as he glanced over at Willow. "We don't have all—" Xander felt a rock-hard fist slam against his jaw, nearly shattering it. He hit the ground in less than a second as the gun fell away from him.

Willow looked over to see the bald, Asian vampire with sharp teeth glowering at them. "Xander!" Willow cried in horror. Kwan reached down and picked him up by his neck and threw him across the room, knocking him into a wall.

He collided into the plaster of the wall and stumbled about before falling to his knees. "All… all right," he groggily said as blood dripped from his lower lip. "That's enough, Lex Luth—"

Kwan buried his fist into Xander's gut, raising him off of the ground. He hooked Xander with his left fist and sent him falling back to the ground. The young man was leaned against the wall, sitting on the floor with a bloodied and bruised face. Kwan roared over him as the vampire stood up tall, ready for the kill.

Xander gazed up at Kwan in a daze. The vampire glowered down at him with a slight smile. "Never turn your face away from your enemies," he warned.

Xander glanced over to the back of the room, then back up at the vamp. "Tell you what, Kato," he quipped groggily, "never turn your back... on a genius." Kwan gazed at him in confusion, then spun around to see Willow holding the gun up. She pulled back the trigger and released a rain of bullets which sliced through Kwan's skull, neck and shoulders. Xander flattened himself beneath the rain until dust fell on top of him.

Willow held the gun in her hands with wide, stunned eyes as her chest heaved sporadically. Xander gazed up at her. "It's fine, Will," he replied. "You did it." Willow reached down and helped her best friend back onto his feet.

"See?" Xander smiled as he took the gun from her. "No matter what – even without magic – you'll always be able to save my ass."

Willow stared up at him as a small smile formed on her face. "God knows it'll always need saving," she agreed, then turned around and hopped back on the laptop.

**6:26:13 A.M. PST**

Buffy was thrown across the room and slammed head-first into the passenger door of a parked Jeep. She tumbled backwards and landed hard on her back as she saw the devilish vamp stalking towards her. Buffy rolled onto her hands and feet, blood dripping from her forehead, as she stared up at her enemy with bleary eyes.

"You've failed Slayer," Vourdulak declared coldly. "Just like all the others." Larissa raised Buffy's battle axe over her head and was about to bring it down on top of her when she froze. A lightning bolt of pain struck her suddenly motionless.

Buffy looked up to see Jack standing behind her with his hand sticking through the center of her back. With a snap, Jack yanked out his hand and the vampire's spine was tucked inside of it. Her body was reduced to rubber as it and the bones of her spine collapsed into a pillar of dust which rained down to the ground.

Buffy was overwhelmed with fright and amazement as she stared up with wide eyes. Quickly, she pushed herself into a stand before the mighty figure standing in front of her.  
She glanced him over, studying the dust and blood of various demons that dripped from his face, neck, arms, hands and chest. It was as if he'd walked through a bloodbath. Buffy's eyes drifted upwards and found his, staring deeply into their depths. Inside of their green and blue hue, there was a being inside – one whose emotions fell between cruel, fiery rage burning within, but cold, ruthless indifference on the surface.

Her expression darkened and her heart began to beat with fear as the stranger in front of her glared at her coldly. Buffy was standing before an apathetic being with no heart and no soul who now had powers greater than hers which gave him no weakness. His blank, yet icy gaze bore through her, screaming with silence, causing her to back away. He was going to obliterate her and there would be no mercy.

Buffy would have been lost in that terrified, frozen state for a great deal longer had she not heard the intervention of a familiar voice. "Kill her," the male British-accent declared. With wide eyes and instant recognition, she turned her head to see Merrick standing near the wall with a smile on his face and his eyes flashing wide with anticipation. "Kill her now, son."

Buffy's brows rose as she turned back to Jack, hoping to get through his rock-solid mind. "Merrick was your _father_?"

Jack glared at her in silence for several seconds, then broke it with a single, anger-filled word. "You," he declared, sending chills through Buffy's spine. "You killed him. You took him away from me…"

"What?" Buffy exclaimed in shock. "Jack, that's… that's not true."

"Yes, it is," Merrick snapped. "Look at her – she _knows_ it is."

Buffy turned away from Merrick and focused on Jack. "Listen, he died saving me. But… but I didn't kill him myself." She glanced back at Merrick momentarily. "I don't know what's going on here," she nervously stated, then declared with resolve, "but I do know one thing for sure. Merrick was a good man who _believed_ in what he was fighting for – in what he died for. He would never be standing here telling you this. The _real_ Merrick wouldn't."

"She's a fool!" Merrick barked, though obviously threatened. Jack stared at Buffy continuously, but his expression was slowly changing. The coldness was melting into confusion and loss.  
"She's just a stupid little girl who never cared anything about her destiny!" Merrick raged. "Dispose of her like the garbage that she is." Buffy turned back to Merrick with an angry gaze as he continued, "My son, do not submit to this! You have a destiny! _This_ is your destiny!" Buffy turned back to Jack and witnessed the turmoil inside of his eyes… the conscience she had thought disappeared was still there. "You are evil, Jack!" Merrick barked. "You always have been!"

"Jack," Buffy softly whispered, watching his struggle. Jack eyes were brimming with tears of rage and pain as he clenched his jaw and squeezed his fists. "Jack, look at me…" His eyes lifted off of the walls and found her sincere expression. "It's not Merrick," she shook her head apologetically. "He's gone."

"Don't listen to her!" Merrick shouted, desperately holding onto his sinking ship.

Jack glanced up at her with agony, begging for freedom. "You're not a monster," she pleaded. "You're a man. Fight this."

"Do _not_ fight this!" Merrick hissed. "This is your destiny! We cannot change who we are!"

Buffy stared at him with a simple statement, "We _are_ who we _choose_ to be." Jack gazed at her in amazement as the chains were snapped. The two of them stared at each other in silence as the noises of the room around them drifted away.

Merrick suddenly morphed form and changed into Teri again, with flashing eyes full of spite and rage. The First hissed with venom on its tongue, "You will do as I say!"

Jack's eyes rolled from Buffy's face to the Beast standing on the other side of the room. Inside of them, there was not a blank coldness, but the man Jack Bauer who had returned for good. "Bored now."

With a crash, the windows around them burst as three dog-like demons barged into the room with jaws snapping fervently. Buffy scraped up her axe and swung it high overhead as one of the massive demon dogs trotted towards her. She brought the axe down on the skull of the demon, stopping it, then lifted it and brought it down repeatedly, chopping it to pieces as black goop flew everywhere. Once the axe snapped in her hands, she finally stopped to see that the beast was not yet dead but injured enough.

Dropping the broken weapon, Buffy turned around and was horrified to see Jack grab one of the beasts in his arms and crush every bone in its body with a squeeze. The floppy corpse was tossed across the room with superhuman strength, slapping a wall as it rolled down to the floor. Jack turned towards the other dog ready for the slaughter.

Buffy spun around in a panic, searching for a weapon. Was Jack really back? Glancing down on the ground, she found an abandoned M16 lying near a wall. The Slayer leapt for it and rolled across the ground, scooping it up just as she heard another fierce crack and the canine whimper of the mortally injured demon.

Buffy looked up to see another demon dog peeking in through the broken glass. She lifted the gun and aimed at the demon, unleashing bullets into its snout and eyes which killed it immediately. Behind her, she could hear Jack's footsteps rushing up behind her. The Slayer spun around and jumped onto her feet, aiming the gun at Jack who was only a few feet away by this point.

In a flash, he grabbed the barrel and crushed it in his hands, yanking it away from her. He glanced at the gun, then turned back to Buffy who was obviously scared and unsure of who was standing in front of her. "I thought you said that these weren't your style," he declared with a half-smile.

Buffy's eyes widened as a wave of relief crashed into her. He was definitely back. In her ecstatic joy, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, a gesture which he returned with considerable more force. It had been a long time since he'd felt an embrace like that. "Uh," she coughed, "Jack… too tight." He released her immediately, allowing her to breathe.

She glanced around the room as the dead demons and the mangled gun on the ground. "Kinda impressive," she shrugged carelessly. "I mean I could have done this by myself." Buffy looked up at him with a half-smile that he mirrored.

"Well," said Jack, "it didn't look that way when you were getting your ass—"

Their untimely banter was cut short when Willow and Xander crashed into the room, colliding with them. "Ow!" Buffy grimaced. She and Jack looked Willow and Xander over – the two of them looking rabid with panic.

"It's going into lockdown!" Willow shouted. "We've got forty seconds!" Jack and Buffy glanced at each other in terror, then bolted with the other two out of the wall. They rushed through the maze of corridors miraculously finding their way back to the elevator.

Jack pounded the button and the doors shut as the elevator raced up the tunnel towards the fraternity house. Once the elevator came to a stop at the top, the doors opened and the four of them rushed out. A voice inside of the elevator declared, "Lockdown completed." Two steel blast doors in front of the elevator slammed home, sealing it off permanently. Buffy, Jack, Willow and Xander glanced at each other with expressions of relief.

**6:44:29 A.M. PST**

Newly reunited Xander and Anya rushed down the stairs of the basement where they found a sickly, yet calm Spike in a coma below. With a syringe in hand, Xander bit off the protective cap and stuck it into the glass vial in his hand. Anya wrapped a rubber tourniquet around Spike's bicep as Xander stuck the needle inside of Spike's vein and administered the antivirus.

Immediately, Spike's vitals began to look up as he stirred in his sleep. Anya looked over to Xander with a proud expression on her face. "You're really something else, you know that?" she smiled.

Xander shrugged sheepishly, then declared, "Just don't tell _him_."

**6:47:39 A.M. PST**

Dawn sat up in her hospital bed with Tara and Willow standing next to her, the two of them leaning on each other with exhaustion. Holding a phone to her ear with her lright hand, Dawn said with a tired smile. "Everything's going to be okay, Buffy," she reassured her. "The doctor said the bullet didn't do any major damage. My shoulder will be fine."

Buffy stood in the middle of her charred kitchen with the two pieces of her broken telephone in her hand and on her ear. "Are you sure?" Buffy asked nervously. She had cleaned the blood off of her forehead, but a long cut added to the bruises and nicks around her face and body. "Just wait a few minutes, I'm going to be there. I'm already on my way."

"Uh," Dawn interrupted her apologetically. "You can go anywhere you want, but I'm going to sleep. Sorry, sis." Buffy could hear Willow and Tara's amused laughs over the phone and couldn't help but smile despite herself.

"I'm really proud of you, Dawn," she warmly declared. "_Very_ proud."

"Well," Dawn half-shrugged, "I _did_ take a bullet in the shoulder for you guys, but hey – on the upside for me – this means I get to miss school." A flash of memory smacked her in the head, "Which reminds me, Buffy – I'm gonna need a note. There's an English paper due that I'm _really_ not gonna get around to tonight."

Buffy let out a soft chuckle as she rolled her eyes. "You got it," she smiled. "Get some rest."

**6:50:18 A.M. PST**

Teri's feet walked over broken glass and severed limbs as the First surveyed the damage inside the Initiative. Walking through the boardroom which overlooked the base outside of a window, it stood in peaceful silence. The base was now sealed up, it would take years of work to ever open it up. Or maybe just a visit to some army general's home one night in the form of their deceased mother.

But what would be the point? What the First needed had already been gained. Enough energy, both evil and benign, had been kicked into the air. The Slayer had come back to life, which threw the Slayer line completely out of whack _and_ the Powers that Be had _another_ Champion with new powers. One just as great, if not greater than the Slayer herself. There were bigger things to plan.

"Help us," a shaky voice said from behind. The First as Teri turned around and viewed a camouflage-wearing vampire with a missing arm and half a leg as he crawled in through the door. Beside him, there was a bloody vamp solider with his tongue ripped out and both legs removed at the pelvis – both of them victims of Jack's rage.

The First glanced them over and considered the damage of the evil still living inside of Jack's heart. _Not bad_, it thought.

"Help us get out of here… please…" the armless vampire cried.

Teri's eyes stared at them with a motherly apology. "But why? You're finished."

This caused panic in both vampires. "You're finished, too!" the armless one angrily spat. "Everything's gone—"

"According to plan," the First grinned. "For me," Teri's smile widened, "it's just the beginning." The First turned around and began to walk towards the shadows.

"You can't just leave us here!" the vampire shouted. "We'll starve!"

"Oh really?" the First replied, glancing back to them with surprise. The concern in Teri's face melted away instantly as it glowered and cruelly declared, "That sounds like a personal problem to me."

Backing into the shadows, the First disappeared, leaving dozens of vampires and demons trapped inside the Initiative to die a slow death.

**6:54:49 A.M. PST**

Jack sat on the front porch steps of the Summers' home with a towel in his hands. He had wiped most of the blood off and his wounds were already cleaned and patched up. He looked over to his shoulder which had been pierced by a bullet just an hour before as he peered through the hole in his black shirt.

With confusion he stared at his flesh in silence. The wound had disappeared, leaving a scar behind. It had already healed. He pulled his fingers and his gaze away and he looked out at the pink sky over the quaint neighborhood around him.

There was a calm breeze that floated through the little homes and found him, and a gentle warmth inside that reassured him that though everything was about to change again, it would ultimately be okay. His multicolored eyes found the spotted blood on the once-white cloth in his hands and studied it for several seconds.

Jack Bauer's father was a watcher. A great one, according to Buffy. All of his life he pictured some monster, the blood of which running through Jack's veins, and like some curse he had forced Jack into becoming such a cunning killer. But it wasn't Merrick's doing, or anyone else's. Jack Bauer, the hero and the killer, were the same person and were a result of Jack's own choices.

He thought back to before when he thought the real Teri was standing over him, asking him, "Why do you fight?" Before, he hadn't had an answer. For years, he didn't really need one. _Because I choose to_, he thought to himself, mulling over Buffy's definitive statement as well. _We are who we choose to be_.

"Hey," Buffy's voice chimed in from behind. Jack turned around and saw her standing in the open doorway of her mutilated house.

"Hey," he responded kindly. Tiredly, she walked over to the steps of the porch and plopped down beside him, gazing out at the street in front of her house and the pinkish-yellow sky above them. Their elbows on their knees, they waited for the rising sun in the distance.

"Your friends called," Buffy began, "from a secured line, of course. So I took it upon myself to give them a short recap, tell them you're okay, thank them for everything, and… I figured they wouldn't be calling back."

"No," Jack shook his head with a bittersweet expression. "They won't be." Buffy watched him with a slight sense of pity as she turned back towards the house.

"I'd offer you breakfast," she added, "but I'd say everything's already cooked… unless you like blackened cereal."

A small smile formed. "Damage is that bad, huh?"

"I have no idea how I'm going to pay for this," she sighed. "I had enough trouble just paying for the house itself."

Jack gazed down at the ground with a small expression of mischief. "Maybe they'll give you a half-off discount," he responded, "now that you only have half a house." He looked over at her with a smirk at which she was stunned.

"Did hard-ass Jack Bauer just make a joke?" she grinned. "I think he did."

He shrugged, relaxed. "Maybe I know one or two numbers you can call."

"Thanks," Buffy rejected in disbelief, "but unless one of those numbers belongs to the Allstate guy, I'm pretty much screwed."

"How about an ex-President?" Jack asked, glancing back at her. She stared at him, impressed.

"Oh," she answered. "Well. I _am_ in good hands." They both shared another smile and then they turned back towards the sky just as the newborn sun was rising over the hills. They watched it majestically with awe as Buffy let out a sigh. "Long night," she breathed.

Jack nodded, then declared with a tone of apology and warning, "It's not over, you know." Buffy let her eyes fall to the ground with a somber tone. "That thing… whatever it was," Jack stated, "it's not finished."

"I know," Buffy replied. "It's not over for you, either." She looked down at his non-injuries and the blood on the towel. "There's no way to make sure that the Rambo-juice is gone. It may be something that you live with your whole life." With another sigh, she said with optimism as she began to come to a stand, "But that's a bridge that we'll cross if it starts to collap—"

"I'm leaving," he declared abruptly. Buffy looked over at him with wide eyes and sat back down, stunned.

"What?"

He shook his head. "I have to go, Buffy."

"Why?" she declared in shock. "I-I don't understand…"

"I came here and I lied to you, and your friends, and the whole world because some bad people were trying to kill me," Jack explained simply. "Well, you know the truth now… and you're not safe." She turned away from him angrily, fixating her cold gaze on the burned grass in front of the steps. Jack stared at her contritely and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Sooner or later, they'll come for me like they did tonight. I don't want you and your family to get hurt."

Buffy stared down at the grass, then looked up at the sky with a bitter expression. "You're probably right," she said. "They'll come for you." She turned to him with resolve. "They always will. Wanna know why? Because you're the only one." Jack stared at her with confusion as she explained, "One thing I've learned from being the Slayer is that you can't escape who you are." She turned to him and stared through him firmly, "Maybe your name's James Dawson, but Jack Bauer is who you were born to be." He stared at her with humility and listened to her plea with a grateful heart.

"You _are_ a hero," she declared with firm belief. "And a friend. You don't have to run away from that. Or run away from a life." Maybe he was crazy, maybe it was just some over-emotional moment, but Jack Bauer stared at this young woman whom he had met a mere twelve hours before and felt like he was talking with his long-dead wife once again.

He gazed at her thankfully with a warm smile, and Buffy noted his change in manner. "What?" she asked in confusion.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "You just… remind me of someone." They glanced over to see the sun fully risen, the start of a new day. "Thank you," he declared to her. Buffy turned back to him in confusion. "For today." They stared at each other like old friends as the new sunlight warmed the town of Sunnydale and pushed back the blanket of the bleak night that lay behind them.

She came to a stand, brushing off her jeans. "Well, James. Breakfast. How about it?"

"Yeah," he said, staring out at the bright yellow sky as she walked to the front door. "Oh, and Buffy?" She turned back around and faced him. He glanced back at her with a smile of satisfaction and peace.

"Call me Jack."

**  
6:59:58… **

6:59:59…

7:00:00

THE END

_Thank you for reading and please takethe time to review and tell me what you thought!_


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